Jill Watts is the author of Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood. McDaniel was the first African-American to win an Academy Award. She won the Oscar for her supporting role as “Mammy†in the Civil War epic Gone With the Wind. McDaniel grew up in Denver's Five Points neighborhood, where she began performing at an early age. Ryan Warner spoke with Watts last February, when the book was first published. It's part of our look back at some of the authors we've interviewed in 2006.
