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Miss Black America

Overview

The Miss Black America pageant

Beauty contest

A beauty contest, or beauty pageant, is a competition based mainly on the physical beauty of its contestants, although such contests often incorporate personality, talent, and answers to judges' questions as judged criteria...

is a competition for young African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...

women in areas such as speech, talent, style, and poise; essentially the black exclusive version of the popular Miss America

Miss America

The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

pageant.

J. Morris Anderson first created and produced the Miss Black America Pageant on August 17, 1968, it was a local Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth-most-populous city in the United States.In 2008, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the metropolitan area's population of 5.8 million made it the country's fifth-largest...

area pageant to protest the lack of black women in the Miss America pageant.

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Encyclopedia

The Miss Black America pageant

Beauty contest

is a competition for young African American

African American

women in areas such as speech, talent, style, and poise; essentially the black exclusive version of the popular Miss America

Miss America

The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

pageant.

History

J. Morris Anderson first created and produced the Miss Black America Pageant on August 17, 1968, it was a local Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

area pageant to protest the lack of black women in the Miss America pageant. With strong assistance from Phillip H. Savage, Tri-State Director of the NAACP, the Pageant received nationwide press coverage as a protest against the Miss America Pageant, an event that Mr. Savage and other NAACP leaders loudly condemned, over many years, for exclusion of black women contestants. Ironically, the Miss Black America Pageant has also been criticized for its exclusion of non-black women.

The winners

Year	Miss Black America	From
1968	Saundra Williams	Pennsylvania Pennsylvania The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
1969	Gloria O. Smith	New York New York New York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
1970	Unknown	Mississippi Mississippi Mississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
1971	Joyce Warner	Florida Florida Florida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
1972	Linda Barney	New Jersey New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
1973	Arniece Russell	New York New York New York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
1974	Von Gretchen Shepard	Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, California Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
1975	Helen Jean Ford	Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in Forrest County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 44,779 at the 2000 census.Founded in 1882 by pioneer lumberman and civil engineer William H. Hardy, Hattiesburg was named in honor of Hardy's wife Hattie. The town was incorporated two years later with a...
1976	Twanna Kilgore	Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
1977	Claire Ford	Memphis, Tennessee Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4^th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
1978	Lydia Jackson	Willingboro, New Jersey
1979	Varetta Shankle	Mississippi Mississippi Mississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
1980	Sharon Wright	Chicago, Illinois
1981	Yvette Cason Yvette Cason Yvette Cason is an American television, theatre, and film actress, and a former Miss Black America from Washington, D.C. She was an understudy for the character of Effie White in the original 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls. In 2006, she played May, the mother of Deena Jones, portrayed by...	District of Columbia
1982	Susan Wells	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1984	Lydia S.Garrett	Columbia, South Carolina Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 116,278 according to the 2000 census . Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into Lexington County. The city is the center of a metro area of 728,063...
1985	Amina Fakir	Detroit, Michigan Detroit, Michigan Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
1986	Rachel Oliver	Burlington, North Carolina
1987	Leila McBride	Denver, Colorado Denver, Colorado The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
1988	Unknown	Unknown
1989	Paula Gywnn	Unknown
1990	Rosie Jones	Unknown
1991	Sharmell Sullivan Sharmell Sullivan Sharmell Sullivan-Huffman is an American professional wrestling valet and occasional wrestler currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. She is best known for her work as Queen Sharmell with WWE until her release in 2007...	Gary, Indiana Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population was 102,746 at the 2000 census, making it the fifth largest city in the state. Gary was once the second largest city...
1992	Unknown	Unknown
1993	Ebony Warren	Unknown
1994	Pilar G. Fort	Detroit, Michigan Detroit, Michigan Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
1995	Karen D. Wallace (Douglas)	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's estimated population as of 2008 was 551,789, with an estimated metro-area population of 1,206,142...
1996	Basheerah Ahmad	Choctaw, Oklahoma Choctaw, Oklahoma Choctaw is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The population was 9,377 at the 2000 census. While Choctaw is located in the geographic center of Eastern Oklahoma County, it enjoys relative prosperity on the fringes of the urbanized...
1997	Karen Brimley-Massey	West Helena, Arkansas West Helena, Arkansas West Helena is the western portion of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 8,689....
1998	Unknown	Unknown
1999	Unknown	Unknown
2000	Unknown	Unknown
2001	Unknown	Unknown
2002	Unknown	Unknown
2003	Unknown	Unknown
2004	Unknown	Unknown
2005	Unknown	Unknown
2006	Unknown	Unknown
2007	Unknown	Unknown
2008	Unknown	Unknown
2009	Unknown	Unknown

Trivia

The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 were an American popular music family group from Gary, Indiana...

made their first television debut performing during the 1969 pageant, won by Gloria O. Smith, Miss New York.
Kathleen Bradley
Kathleen Bradley
Kathleen Bradley was primarily known as a "Barker's Beauty" on the daytime game show The Price Is Right from 1990 to 2000...

won the "Miss Black California
California
California is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...

" award in 1971.
In 1971, Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American media personality, actress, television producer, literary critic and magazine publisher, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history...

competed as Miss Black Tennessee.
1977 winner Claire Ford also guest starred on the T.V. show Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
This article is about the television series. For the amusement park, see Martin's Fantasy Island or Fantasy Island UKFantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:Before it became a...

.
In 1991, boxer Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. He was the undisputed heavyweight champion and remains the youngest man ever to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles. He won the WBC title at just 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old, after defeating Trevor Berbick by a TKO in...

was a judge in the pageant, and the following year was convicted of raping Miss Black Rhode Island, Desiree Washington. The winner of that pageant was future WCW
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and his...

Nitro Girl
Nitro Girls
The Nitro Girls were a dance team in World Championship Wrestling. Similar to the Fly Girls from In Living Color, their initial function was to dance and entertain the live crowds during commercial breaks.-History:...

, WWE Diva
WWE Diva
Diva is a term used by the professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment to refer to its female talent. The term is applied to women who appear as wrestlers, managers or valets, backstage interviewers, or ring announcers.-1996–2000:...

, and TNA Knockout
TNA Knockout
Knockout is a term used by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling to refer to its female talent. The term is applied universally to wrestlers, backstage interviewers, and managers/valets. They are analogous to the Divas of rival World Wrestling Entertainment....

Sharmell Sullivan
Sharmell Sullivan
Sharmell Sullivan-Huffman is an American professional wrestling valet and occasional wrestler currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. She is best known for her work as Queen Sharmell with WWE until her release in 2007...

.
Two Jackson State University
Jackson State University
Jackson State University is a historically black university located in Jackson, Mississippi founded in 1877...

co-eds, Helen Jean Ford and Varetta Shankle, have held the title of Miss Black America. Both were also members of the University's marching band, "The Sonic Boom of the South."
There is a Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly. From these works and others, he is highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of...

song entitled "Miss Black America."
T'Keyah Crystal Keymah
T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh
T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh is an American actress, writer, director, producer, singer, and comedian. In addition to her status as an original cast member of the FOX sketch comedy series In Living Color, she is perhaps best known for her roles as Erica Lucas on the CBS sitcom Cosby, and as Tanya...

won the "Miss Black Illinois" pageant in 1985 and was First Runner Up in the Miss Black America Pageant that year.