How’s that for a little history?
When South Africa’s Zozibini Tunzi was crowned Miss Universe during last night’s Miss Universe pageant, she added to a unique kind of pageant history. For the first time ever, four of the top pageant titles in the world all belong to Black women. Tunzi joins 2019 Miss USA Cheslie Kryst, 2019 Miss Teen USA Kaliegh Garris and 2019 Miss America Nia Franklin.
The history of Black women winning top pageants is skewed thanks to discrimination. Only in the past 50 years, beginning with 1977’s Miss Universe Janelle Commissiong, has the tide began to turn. Vanessa Williams was the first Black Miss America in 1983, Carol Anne-Marie Gist was the first black Miss USA crowned in 1990 and in 1991, Janel Bishop became the first Black Miss Teen USA.
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Each of the pageant winners are working for the betterment of their fellow man. Tunzi is fighting against gender-based violence. Kryst, a graduate of both the University of South Carolina (Bachelor of Science in Business Administration) and Wake Forest University (JD and MBA), works as an attorney to help prisoners who were unjustly convicted get reduced sentences, free of charge.
Garris is defying pageant beauty standards, rocking her natural hair at every turn.
“I know what I look like with straight hair, with extensions, and with my curly hair, and I feel more confident and comfortable with my natural hair,” the 18-year-old from Connecticut told Refinery29 earlier this year.
For Franklin, a 23-year-old opera singer from North Carolina, music is how she found herself and now she’s impacting that same knowledge to children. Congrats to all of these beautiful Black queens!
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Miss USA, Miss America, Miss Teen USA And Miss Universe Are All Black Women was originally published on myhoustonmajic.com
