After Sounder had scored four
nominations in 1972, it was thought that African American's had finally
arrived. The following year, Diahann Carroll was nominated for Best
Actress for Claudine, losing to Ellen Burstyn for Alice Doesn't Live Here
Anymore. That would be the last nomination for a black actor until
1982.
In 1975, Diana Ross appeared in
the box office failure, Mahogany, a second attempt at the Best Actress
Oscar. Her supporters cried racism when the Academy failed to
nominate her for her role, or the theme from Mahogany, Do You Know Where
You're Going To, in the Best Song category. The issue brought some
bad press to the Song category, citing unfair practices, and referring to
it as a 'member's only' club, and the Academy's music branch was forced to
throw out the original line up, and re-vote. The second time around,
Mahogany made the final cut, but it eventually lost to 'I'm Easy', from
Robert Altman's Nashville.
1982 saw the first black actor to
win an Oscar in twenty years, when Louis Gossett Jr. won for An Soldier's
Story. By this time, the NAACP and other black groups seemed to have
given up on the Academy truly recognizing African American film makers,
and more so, on Hollywood breaking through the color barrier. When
The Color Purple garnered 11 Oscar nominations in 1985, these same groups
were up in arms over the fact that the film didn't present positive
perspectives on black men. The controversial film, based on the book
by Alice Walker, and directed by Steven Spielberg, was popular with
audiences, going on to win big box office, even beating the Best Picture
winner, Out of Africa, but it also lost out in all the categories it was
nominated in. Some blamed the Spielberg
backlash, while others
thought that the controversy turned voters away.
When Eddie Murphy presented the
Best Picture award to the 1987 film, The Last
Emperor, he took a moment to
joke about the issue. After saying that he was tired of black actors
riding the caboose of Hollywood, he said he was instructed by his white
agent to show up for the ceremony late, as the Best Picture was usually
presented at the end of the night. He then said he probably wouldn't
have to worry about an Oscar backlash for his statement, as it seemed that
black actors only won Oscar's about once every twenty years. By that
rate, the next one wouldn't be due until 2004.
The 1989 Oscar's saw the issue of
race brought into a brand new light, when Best Picture favorite, and
ultimate winner, Driving Miss Daisy received criticism from black groups
and members of the Academy. The film looked at a relationship
between an elderly Jewish woman and her black driver in the south. A
well intentioned story, the film didn't have the impact nor the relevance
of a film that failed to get a nod, Spike Lee's controversial, Do the
Right Thing. As Roger Ebert said, it was a 'daring movie, that
made no compromises, and left it up to the audience to determine what the
right thing was'.
The Academy members were sent
cassette copies of the film prior to nominations, a campaign strategy that
was pretty new at the time. It's unknown why the film failed to
garner a Best Picture nod, nor a Best Director nod, other than to suggest
that its content was considered to controversial for the
voters.
Not only was there outcry from the
critics about this oversight, but even Academy members were
outraged. During that year's ceremony, a nervous Kim Basinger broke
from her script while presenting a clip of Best Picture contender, Dead
Poet's Society, to applaud the work of Do The Right
Thing, and to slap the Academy on the hand for failing to mention it in
the list of nominations. Ironically, Danny Aiello received one of
two nominations that the film got, for Best Supporting Actor. He
lost out to Denzel Washington, who was nominated for playing a black
soldier in the civil war epic, Glory.