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Hattie (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) works long hours as a hotel cleaner and dotes lovingly upon her only grandchild, Elwood, taking great pride in his studious nature and academic achievements. She raises Elwood herself, providing him with a stable and supportive home and fostering his ambitions. While Elwood is passionate about the Civil Rights movement, Hattie is more cautious in her support. She follows the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. closely and notes the biased coverage of protests in local newspapers. Nevertheless, she permits herself little optimism regarding the movement’s ability to truly change lives for African Americans in the United States.  

Hattie’s own life has been marked profoundly by racist violence, as she reveals somberly after Elwood’s arrest. Her father, she reveals, was jailed after a white woman accused him of not moving out of her way on the sidewalk. Two days later, before he even saw a judge, her father was found hanged in his cell, and Hattie implies that he was murdered. In a bitter speech, she suggests that all the men in her family were harmed by racism, including her son, Elwood’s father, who struggled to adjust to the daily racism he encountered as a civilian after returning from serving in the army. Reflecting gravely upon Elwood’s arrest, she notes that she has never asked for more than her own “portion,” accepting the “crumbs” given to her by white people, and yet she has “paid” dearly. Hattie has good reason to be deeply pessimistic about race relations in America  

When Elwood is at Nickel Academy, Hattie works tirelessly to try and mount a legal defense and free him. She is able to raise $200, a large sum at the time, and raises a further $100 from the sympathetic Mr. Marconi. Ultimately, however, her faith in the legal system as a means of attaining justice is cruelly shaken when the lawyer takes her money and leaves Florida without offering her any aid. She is told that Elwood is sick and cannot receive visitors during her first attempt to visit him, though she hugs Turner when she meets him on the school grounds, without even knowing that he is a close friend of her grandson. She is one of the few characters in the film who treat the students at Nickel with kindness and sympathy. Elwood’s death confirms all of Hattie’s fears about the injustice and danger endured by Black people in the America. 

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