Hattie McDaniel

Black History Month provides an opportunity for people of African descent to reflect on the struggles and joys of the past, celebrate the progress made, and look forward to what is to come. It’s also the shortest month of the year — a rolling joke in the Black community.

Seeing Samantha Jane Williams play Hattie McDaniel, who in 1940 became the first Black recipient of an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the classic film “Gone with the Wind,” is reason enough not to miss “Boulevard of Bold Dreams,” presented through March 19 by the Greater Boston Stage Company in its jewel box of a theater in Stoneham.