The Queen of Sugar Hill: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel

by ReShonda Tate

When Gone with the Wind opened in Atlanta, I was not only forbidden from attending the premiere, but my photo was even removed from the programs distributed there.

“What do you call a will?” he asked as he took a seat across from me. “What, Sam?” “A dead giveaway.”

“Did you hear the one about the play that had a happy ending?” he asked as he stood and headed toward the phone. “No,” I said. “Everybody was glad it was over.”

“You don’t get over it. You get through it, Hattie. And you do that by fighting. You’re the strongest person I know. Get up and fight,” he’d told me.

“We may not understand the why, but God does everything for a reason.”

the fact that her husband couldn’t keep that one-eyed rattlesnake in his pants.

lavender marriage (that’s what we called marriages that appeared normal to the public, but privately the spouses had same-sex lovers).