Brrrr! Good Morning POU!
This week we’ll take a look at some historical moments that honor the beauty of African Americans. Today we take a look at the history of the Miss Black America pageant.
Saundra Williams, the first Miss Black America (1968)
Philadelphia businessman J. Morris Anderson developed the first Miss Black America pageant at a time when the Miss America pageant excluded Black contestants. Cheryl Brown Hollingsworth broke the color barrier in 1970 as the first Miss America contestant who was Black, but that didn’t stop the Miss Black America pageant from continuing.
“Our protest wasn’t just about the lack of inclusion, but Black people buying into the propaganda,” Anderson explained to The Washington Post. “Many Black people had been convinced that Black skin was ugly, that curly hair was bad hair. There were kids who might have seen their mother pinching their nose so it wouldn’t be broad and would be more European.”
The first contest was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlantic City. With support 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 had long condemned for exclusion of black women contestants.
The pageant thrived during the 1970s, at the height of the Black is Beautiful movement, and received support from prominent Black entertainers like Curtis Mayfield, who wrote its theme song.
In September 1977, NBC televised the Miss Black America contest, the day before CBS televised Miss America.
Today, both the pageant’s founder and a previous contestant argue for its relevance in the face of anti-Black and sexist beauty standards. “You have to win at the state level before you can go on to Miss America,” 1976 Miss Black America contestant Jan Reynolds said. “A lot of time, [racism is] not letting you win at the state level.”
“Some of the stereotypes put out there by the power structure about Black women’s beauty still exist,” Anderson adds.
On August 18, 2018, Brooklyn-based marketing executive Ryann Richardson became the reigning Miss Black America. Her victory, as well as the rest of the pageant and a 50th anniversary retrospective special, will air on television during Black History Month 2019. Miss Black America representatives confirmed several regional television stations, including CW affiliates like KTLA (Los Angeles) and KDAL(Dallas-Fort Worth) Chicago, as syndication hosts.