(CNN) -- On a winter evening in early 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first black performer to win an Oscar, a best supporting actress honor for her performance as Mammy, the servant in "Gone With the Wind." Will Smith has overcome racial boundaries but can do more, says an expert in race-based casting. She accepted her award at the Academy Awards ceremony at the Coconut Grove, a nightclub in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel, where she was seated in the segregated section at the rear of the room. Though her win was played as a sign of progress for black actors in America -- "Not only was she the first of her race to receive an Award, but she was also the first Negro ever to sit at an Academy banquet," said Daily Variety, according to Mason Wiley and Damien Bona's indispensable "Inside Oscar" -- her role was poorly received by much of the black community. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People claimed that the part was stereotypical and degrading.
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Hattie McDaniel was the first black performer to win an Academy Award
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Reporter says 2002 was a breakthrough year for black actors
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In 80 years, 11 black actors have been awarded Oscars
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There should be a complexity of roles for black actors, professor says
Hattie McDaniel
Hattie McDaniel
Nearly 70 years after @placeholder's win, black performers have certainly come far.
Academy Awards
Academy
Academy Award
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"The @placeholder were notoriously stingy to black actors," O'Neil said.
Will Smith
More recently, actors like @placeholder have been successful in overcoming racial boundaries because they're profitable, Robinson said.
Will Smith
With Smith's 2005 film "Hitch," "the studio would not cast a black woman as @placeholder's love interest in the film because they didn't want the film to be a 'black film,' " Robinson said.
Will Smith
I would hope that @placeholder would try to get black actors hired."