I always thought it absurd that Hollywood couldn’t come up with enough actors of the character’s supposed race. And bigoted. (And that’s about the extent of my need for diversity in film, etc.)
How many Chinese actors and actresses ( do also remember the law against allowing female Chinese immigrants here ),and/or other different races and ethnics here, in the USA, for most of the time movies have been made?
Anna May Wong was in silents and some early talkies, but she's the ONLY one I can think of from that far back.
Fast forward a bit and it's a shame that Lena Horne wasn't in the 1951 version of "SHOWBOAT"; however, 1) she was NOT really light skinned enough to play Julie and her singing style, which I doubt she would have wanted to change, or maybe could not change, would have been ALL WRONG for Julie's solos.
And then there is the fact that Thomas Edison and D.W. Griffith, to name but two of the early film creators/distributors were not just horrible anti-Semites, but also TERRIBLE racists; so no blacks and Jewish actors and actresses changed their names and "passed" as Christians.