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Home · Culture

Miss Black America Pageant Celebrates 50 Years Of Excellence This Weekend

Miss Black America Pageant Celebrates 50 Years Of Black Excellence This Weekend
By Paula Rogo · Updated October 23, 2020
The annual Miss Black America pageant is taking place this weekend in Kansas City, Missouri, celebrating fifty years since it first launched in 1968. The legendary pageant, which will take place at the Gem Theatre in Kansas City, will mark 50 years since the inaugural event in Atlantic City hours after the Miss America pageant was done. Pageant founder J. Morris Anderson told the Des Moines Register that his pageant has seen a “rebirth” in recent years because certain racial issues still persist today.

Miss Black America contestants with their 50th Anniversary Commemorative Bags designed by @mydivaboutique at the UMKC Welcome Reception!

A post shared by Miss Black America (@missblackamericapageant) on Aug 13, 2018 at 12:14pm PDT

“We are really concentrating on some of these problems that existed for black people in the 1960s and still exist today,” Anderson said. “We are aware that there’s an absolute need for this pageant to continue.“ Anderson launched the pageant after his two young daughters shared their desire of becoming Miss America. Although the Miss America pageant had been desegrated since 1940, there had yet to be a black contestant by the late 1960s.

Pageant week is set off with a bang! Miss Black America 2017, Brittany Lewis is featured with pageant founder, Mr. J Morris Anderson at our 50th Anniversary Celebration and Black History Documentary Filming! Our preliminary pageant is tomorrow! Our top ten finalists in each category will be selected! #MBAP50 #missblackamerica #missblackamericapageant

A post shared by Miss Black America (@missblackamericapageant) on Aug 15, 2018 at 9:35pm PDT

So Anderson organized the first Miss Black America just blocks away from the Miss America pageant. The first winner was Saundra Williams, who was just 19 years old when she crowned. The likes of Oprah Winfrey have gone on to compete in the competition in the years since.

Back with another Throwback Thursday! Can you guess who this is? Here are your hints: 1. She currently owns her OWN TV Network. 2. She starred in the infamous movie, The Color Purple, as Sofia 3. She won Miss Black Tennessee at the age of 17 (pictured above) and went on to compete in the Miss Black America Pageant in 1971, unfortunately not taking home the prize. . . This year marks 50 YEARS of the Miss Black America Pageant. An important year this is, celebrating the beauty of Black Women across the country. Join us in Kansas City, Missouri the week of August 11-18 making history with the events leading up to and including the pageant! Click the link in our bio to be apart of this historic event See you there! . . . #MissBlackAmericaPageant #MissBlackAmerica #kansascityevents #blackhistory #blackwomen #blackempowerment #KansasCityMO #PageantWeek #mbap50

A post shared by Miss Black America (@missblackamericapageant) on Jul 26, 2018 at 2:16pm PDT

“Miss America does not represent us because there has never been a black girl in the pageant,” Williams told The New York Times after her 1968 win. “With my title, I can show black women that they too are beautiful…” Cheryl Browne later became the first Black woman to compete in the Miss America pageant in 1970. It would be another 13 years, with Vanessa Williams, before the  first Black woman won the Miss America crown in 1983 This weekend’s pageant is also seen as a big win for Missouri after the NAACP placed a travel ban against the state in 2017, citing numerous incidents of police brutality. Read more about the history of the pageant here.
TOPICS:  Miss America Miss Black America pageant Oprah Winfrey pageant
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