The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be holding their 88th annual awards show this year, and so far, much of the conversation has not revolved around the films themselves, but rather the lack of diversity among nominees, as chronicled by the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Certainly, the Academy still has a long way to go before the nominations and awards handed out reflect the racial, gender, age, and sexual diversity of our multifaceted world. Some of the blame should fall on Hollywood for failing to bring this diversity to the screen; a portion is also shared by audiences who don't shell out their dollars to support the underrepresented.

But in the 88 years of the Oscars, there have also been quite a few historic "Firsts" that broke social barriers well before the government or society at large could claim to do the same. It was the Academy that awarded Hattie McDaniel, the daughter of slaves, an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for 1939's Gone with the Wind. McDaniel was the first African-American to attend the Awards as a guest and nominee - not a servant - in the still-segregated L.A. night club, the Ambassador's Cocoanut Grove, full decades before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A more recent look at Oscars success stories include multiple Firsts for 2013's 12 Years a Slave and another for 2014's Gravity. Let's revisit some of the winner's speeches for the following historic Oscars Firsts, which we can still celebrate today:

Hattie McDaniel 'Gone with the Wind' (1939)

Award: Best Supporting Actress

Significance: 

  • First Black female, First African-American Person, and Oldest African-American Actress to win an Academy Award
  • First African-American person to be nominated
  • First African-American actress to win Best Supporting Actress

McDaniel's life story is much more interesting than her Mammy roles she became known for on radio, television, and in movies. THR has a fantastic retrospective of her life, from her childhood raised by two slave parents, to the denial of her final wish to be buried in the "Whites Only" Hollywood Forever Cemetery, to her missing Oscar statuette lost well after her death. Oscar winners today still remember McDaniel during their speeches, honoring her own speech in which she described her award as a "beacon" for anything she could accomplish.

Bette Davis - Academy's First Female President (1941)

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Image via PBS

Bette Davis, herself a two-time Oscar winner (Jezebel, Dangerous) with nine other Best Actress nominations over her career, became the first woman to act as president of the Academy. Unfortunately, the 33-year-old actor resigned after only two months when her intended reforms, which included doing away with dinner and dancing at the Oscars and rescinding extras' right to vote, were met with powerful resistance. THR again has a great look at Davis' rise to the presidency and almost instantaneous fall as a woman well ahead of her time in an old-fashioned boys' club.

Muriel Box 'The Seventh Veil' (1946)

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Award: Best Writing; Original Screenplay (Shared with husband Sydney Box)

Significance: First woman to win an Oscar for this category

Unsuccessful in her attempts at an acting career, Box collaborated with her husband on almost 40 plays which centered on female protagonists for amateur theater companies. After the Oscar-winning success of The Seventh Veil, Box landed numerous directing opportunities for adapting plays with strong performances that explored controversial themes and social issues. Box's feminist leanings made working in the male-dominated industry even more difficult, resulting in her retirement from filmmaking in order to find a more rewarding and successful career as a novelist.

James Wong Howe 'The Rose Tattoo' (1955)

Award: Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Significance: First Asian to win this award

Yul Brynner 'The King and I' (1956)

Award: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Significance: First Asian to win this award

Brynner was born in Russia and is of Mongolian/Buryat descent.

Miyoshi Umeki 'Sayonara' (1957)

Award: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Significance: First Asian to win this award

Sophia Loren 'Two Women' (1961)

Award: Best Actress in a Leading Role

Significance: First foreign-language performance to win this award

 

Rita Moreno 'West Side Story' (1962)

Award: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Significance: First Hispanic-American to win an Oscar

Sidney Poitier 'Lilies of the Field' (1963)

Award: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Significance: First African-American male actor to be nominated for and win an Oscar

Nominated for 1958's The Defiant Ones; Won for 1963's Lilies of the Field

James Wong Howe 'Hud' (1963)

Award: Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Significance: First Asian to win two Academy Awards:

Julia Phillips 'The Sting' (1973)

Award: Best Picture (with Tony Bill and Michael Phillips)

Significance: First Female Producer to win this Oscar

Edith Head 'The Sting' (1973)

Award: Best Costume Design

Significance: Most Oscar wins by a woman (8 for Best Costume Design)

Tatum O'Neal 'Paper Moon' (1973)

Award: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Significance: Youngest person to win an Oscar.

O'Neal, at age 10, became the youngest winner ever in a competitive category. (Shirley Temple had won an Honorary Award at age 6 in 1935.)

Richard Chew 'Star Wars' (1977)

Award: Best Film Editing (with Paul Hirsch and Marcia Lucas)

Significance: First Asian to win this Oscar

Ben Kingsley 'Gandhi' (1982)

Award: Best Actor in a Leading Role

Significance: First South Asian actor to win this award

Ben Kingsley (Krishna Bhanji) is the son of an Indian from Kenya.

Louis Gossett, Jr. 'An Officer and a Gentleman' (1983)

Award: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Significance: First African-American to win this award.

Linda Hunt 'The Year of Living Dangerously' (1983)

Award: Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Significance: The only person to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex.

As one of our dear commenters pointed out, Hunt actually won the Oscar for playing Billy Kwan, a Chinese-Australian dwarf male "of high intelligence and moral seriousness", which has to be the most diverse/specific role ever.

Haing S. Ngor 'The Killing Fields' (1984)

Award: Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Significance: First Asian to win for Supporting Actor in a Debut Performance:

Prince 'Purple Rain' (1984)

Award: Best Music, Original Song Score

Significance: First African-American to win this award.

This is the last time that "Best Original Song Score" was awarded due to some complicated rules.

Herbie Hancock 'Round Midnight' (1986)

Award: Best Music, Original Score

Significance: First African-American to win this award.