Three film pioneers, Canada Lee, Louise Beavers and Nina Mae McKinney, paved the way for other African-American actors

LOS ANGELES - In an interview with the Los Angeles Times 20 years ago, Sidney Poitier, the first African-American superstar and the first to win the lead-actor Oscar (for 1963's "Lilies of the Field"), discussed the extreme prejudice and hardships faced by black performers in the 1920s, '30s and '40s.