Celebrating 50 Years of Black Magic at the Miss Black America Pageant

By Thao Vo | August 20th, 2018

Over the weekend, the Miss Black America pageant took place and to no surprise, the contestants came to slay.

In order to celebrate 50 years since the pageant’s first launch, many women from all over the country gathered together at the Gem Theatre in Kansas City. The first pageant launched in 1968.

In a statement to Des Moines Register, the Miss Black America founder, J. Morris Anderson shared that the pageant has experienced a “rebirth” in the recent years due to certain racial issues that are still present today.

Anderson said,

“We are really concentrating on some of these problems that existed for black people in the 1960s and still exist today.”

It was in the late 60s when Anderson launched the pageant because his two daughters expressed their desire to become Miss America. The Miss America pageant has been desegregated since 1940, there had been yet a black contestant by the late 1960s.

Anderson held the very first Miss Black America pageant just a few blocks away from where the Miss America pageant took place. At 19-years-old, Saundra Williams took home the crown.

CREDIT

If you didn’t know, Oprah Winfrey has even competed in the annual pageant!

After her win, Williams told The New York Times,

“Miss America does not represent us because there has never been a black girl in the pageant.”

Williams also added,

“With my title, I can show black women that they too are beautiful…”

It wasn’t until 1970 when Cheryl Browne became the very first black woman took the stage to compete in the Miss America pageant.

Congratulations Ryann Richardson on being crowned the 50th anniversary, Miss Black America 2018!

http://www.sheenmagazine.com/celebrating-50-years-of-black-magic-at-the-miss-black-america-pageant/