An Apology and a Star: Belated Recognition for Two Hollywood Women of Color

Two women of color who struggled for recognition in Hollywood have finally received it.

Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather received an official apology for harassment and the destruction of her career, and revolutionary Black actress Juanita Moore was granted a posthumous star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Littlefeather rocketed to fame during 60 seconds of the 1973 Academy Awards ceremony. That year, Marlon Brando was nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of Don Vito Corleone in the 1972 film “The Godfather.” Littlefeather and Brando had planned that if he won, she would announce his refusal to accept the award in protest of the treatment of Native Americans.

Brando stayed away from the ceremony and Littlefeather, an Apache and president of the Native American Affirmative Image Committee, attended on his behalf. When Brando’s win was announced, Littlefeather came to the stage in tribal dress, her long black hair held in beaded bands.

She did not take the Oscar, and said that Brando “very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being, are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry — excuse me,” Littlefeather paused as her speech was interrupted by boos — and applause.

Littlefeather continued, “And on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee. I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity. Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando.”

After the Oscars, Littlefeather was boycotted and her TV and movie career floundered.

Almost 50 years later, in June of this year, Littlefeather was presented with a statement of apology, signed by former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences David Rubin, stating that the abuse she experienced was “unwarranted and unjustified.”

“The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable,” Rubin wrote. “For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

Despite the damage caused by that night at the Oscars, Littlefeather’s work as an activist took off.

“The more that Native American Indian people like myself speak out, the more understanding that there becomes,” Littlefeather told KQED reporter Chloe Veltman two years ago from her home in Marin County. “The truth has got to win out above all the lies that have been told about us by the dominant society.”

The Academy Museum of Motion Picture will host a special event with Sacheen Littlefeather featuring a public apology and a celebration of Indigenous culture on September 17.

Also in June, the Walk of Fame Selection Panel of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that Juanita Moore, a revolutionary Black actor featured in bit parts, guest appearances and starring roles from the 1930s through the early 2000s, will be honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Moore was a film, TV and stage actress who was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, and grew up in Los Angeles. Although she appeared in more than 80 films and TV shows, her name didn’t even appear in the credits for many of the movies she was in.

Her portrayal of Annie Johnson in the 1959 film “Imitation of Life” earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, making her the fifth Black actor in moviemaking history to be nominated for an Academy Award. In the film, Annie is a mother whose light-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane, rejects her Black identity and tries to pass as white.

Following Juanita Moore’s death eight years ago, Moore’s nephew, Arnett Moore, began pushing for his aunt to be commemorated with a Hollywood star on the iconic Walk of Fame.

“She was a trailblazer. She opened doors and today, a lot of the actors of color are not having to deal with some of the things she dealt with,” Arnett Moore told The California Report Magazine last year.

Moore also was recently given a star on the The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (MAX) Walk of Fame in Meridian, Mississippi, which features performance artists born in that state.

Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame will be placed in October 2023.