The premier on December 15, 1939 prompted the declaration of a state holiday in Georgia, as well as a half-holiday on December 14 in Atlanta, the site of the premier. A crowd of 300,000 people gathered to witness the parade of stars down Peachtree Street. Souvenirs chronicling this event can be examined in the cases throughout the exhibition. The popularity of the novel and the film fueled the fantasy of the "plantation legend" and posed real problems for the African-American community as it struggled for economic and political parity and for the respect for personal accomplishments. A telegraph in the exhibition asks for the removal of Hattie McDaniel's image from the original premier's program because of the racial attitudes current in 1939. The second program printed for the premier was blank and the third, most largely distributed version, replaced McDaniel's portrait with that of a minor white character. The portrayal of African-Americans in the film was offensive to many, and the NAACP began a crusade against black actors accepting roles depicting them as servants. This caught the black actors in Hollywood in a difficult position, especially Hattie McDaniel and Oscar Polk, defending their roles in GWTW. Through all this controversy, McDaniel still went on to become the first African-American woman to win an Oscar for her performance as "Mamie".