Butterfly McQueen
2006
Actor · Atheist · Civil Rights Advocate
Butterfly McQueen, born Thelma McQueen, was an American actor who is best remembered for her role as the squeaky-voiced housekeeper “Prissy” in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind. Despite the iconic nature of this role, it became a source of frustration for McQueen, as she found herself typecast and often relegated to similar roles.
“I didn't mind playing a maid the first time, because I thought that was how you got into the business. But after I did the same thing over and over, I resented it. I didn't mind being funny, but I didn't like being stupid.”
As her acting opportunities dwindled in the 1950s, McQueen remained dedicated to education and social activism. An avid learner, she attended classes at five universities and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from City College of New York at the age of sixty-four.
McQueen’s life was marked by modesty and frugality, which allowed her to focus her energies on what mattered most to her — improving the world around her.
McQueen's dissatisfaction with Hollywood extended beyond her roles. A freethinker of her time, she was outspoken in her critique of religion and the social issues that plagued the United States. In 1989, the Freedom From Religion Foundation honored her with its Freethought Heroine Award.
"I'm an atheist, and Christianity appears to me to be the most absurd imposture of all the religions, and I'm puzzled that so many people can't see through a religion that encourages irresponsibility and bigotry."
"The unreachable and therefore the unknowable always seem divine—hence, religion. People need religion because the great masses fear life and its consequences. Its responsibilities weigh heavy. Feeling a weakness in the face of great forces, men seek an alliance with omnipotence to bolster up their feeling of weakness, even though the omnipotence they rely upon is a creature of their own minds."
Butterfly McQueen’s secular values were central to her worldview, shaping both her activism and her public statements. As a committed atheist, she viewed organized religion, particularly Christianity, as a source of division and injustice. She believed that religion encouraged passivity and allowed societal issues like bigotry and inequality to persist. McQueen was a strong advocate for humanism, emphasizing the importance of addressing real-world problems such as poverty and homelessness rather than focusing on promises of an afterlife.
Her commitment to bettering society was evident in her later years when she adopted a public elementary school in Harlem. There, she took on the role of a caretaker, patrolling the playground, picking up litter, and looking after the children. McQueen also frequented senior centers, where she shared her love for classical music, jazz, and show tunes. In her view, real progress was achieved not through promises of an afterlife but by making tangible improvements in the here and now. She lamented that, if humans had focused on Earth and on people, rather than on mythology and on Jesus, there would be less hunger and homelessness.
"They say the streets are going to be beautiful in Heaven. Well, I'm trying to make the streets beautiful here ... When it's clean and beautiful, I think America is heaven. And some people are hell. … If we had put the energy on earth and on people that we put on mythology and on Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have any hunger or homelessness.”
McQueen's legacy is that of a woman who challenged the status quo, both in her professional career and in her personal beliefs. She stood as a testament to the power of critical thinking and evidence-based decision-making, advocating for a society rooted in humanism and egalitarian principles. Her life and words continue to inspire those who seek to build a world that values reason, compassion, and justice over superstition and division.