The Miss Black America beauty contest is a competition for young African-American women. The pageant has garnered the support of artists, activists and performers including Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, and Oprah Winfrey. After 40 years, in 2009 the pageant had a "kick off" in Washington, D.C. to rebrand the competition. The first teen winner was Ashley Anglin. The first runner-up teen was Monet Jackson, a resident of Mitchellville, MD; and Destiny Welch, second runner-up and also an MD resident. The adult winner was DC native and MD resident, Miss Kamilla Collier-Mullin. The first runner-up Miss Cherie A. Bryant, a northern Virginia resident; and the second runner up was Miss Janesia Simmons in the adult pageant.
History It was originally a local Philadelphia area contest to protest the lack of black women in the Miss America pageant. J. Morris Anderson created and produced the Miss Black America Pageant along with Brenda Cozart who organized and directed the pageant also serving as a beauty consultant for contestants and recruiter which started on August 17, 1968, at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlantic City. With support from Phillip H. Savage, Tri-State Director of the NAACP, the pageant received 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.
In September 1977, NBC televised the Miss Black America contest, the day before CBS televised Miss America.
The winners + Year Miss Black America Hometown and/or home state1968Saundra WilliamsPennsylvania1969 Gloria O. Smith New York1970 Stephanie Clark DC1971 Joyce Warner Florida1972 Linda Barney New Jersey1973 Arniece Russell New York 1974 Von Gretchen Shepard Los Angeles, California1975Donzeila Johnson Pennsylvania1976Twanna KilgoreWashington, D.C.1977 Claire Ford Memphis, Tennessee1978Lydia Jackson Willingboro, New Jersey1979 Varetta Shankle Mississippi1980 Sharon Wright Chicago, Illinois1981 Pamela Jenks Boston, Massachusetts1982Susan Wells Milwaukee, Wisconsin1983 Sonya Robinson Milwaukee, Wisconsin1984Lydia S.Garrett Columbia, South Carolina1985 Amina Fakir Detroit, Michigan1986 Rachel Oliver Burlington, North Carolina1987 Leila McBride Denver, Colorado1988 Regina Wallace Florida1989 Paula Gwynn Washington DC1990 Rosie Jones Bridgeport, Connecticut1991 Sharmell Sullivan Gary, Indiana1992 Marilyn DeShields Virginia, Richmond1994 Pilar Fort Detroit, Michigan1995 Karen D. Wallace Oklahoma City, Oklahoma1996 Basheerah Ahmad Choctaw, Oklahoma2010 Ashley Anglin-Teen DC Metropolitan2010 Kamilla Collier-Mullin, Adult DC Metropolitan2010Natasha Ashby - Teen Philadelphia, Pennsylvania2010 Donielle Turner, Adult Philadelphia, Pennsylvania2014 Alexandra Morton, Adult Baltimore, Maryland2015 Jelisa Barringer, Adult Ohio2016 Nicole Lynette Hibbert, Adult Delaware2017 Brittany Lewis, Adult District of Columbia2018 Ryann Richardson, Adult Brooklyn, New York2022 Gabrielle Wilson, Adult Los Angeles, California2023 Ashley Myatt, Adult Detroit, Michigan2023 Elizabeth Dicker, Senior Newark, New Jersey2026 Brianna Suggs, Adult Cincinnati, Ohio2026 Dobreena Helm, Senior Union, New Jersey
In popular culture
A short documentary on the Miss Black America pageant was produced by director Bayer Mack and released by Block Starz Music Television as part of its Profiles of African-American Success video series. In 1970, Curtis Mayfield released a track entitled "Miss Black America" on his debut album, Curtis. In 2021, Jennifer Holness released her documentary film, Subjects of Desire (2021) which documented "the cultural shift in North American beauty standards towards embracing Black female aesthetics" and predominantly featured prep for the 2018 pageant, and interviews with its contestants. The film premiered at SXSW and was screened in the Documentary Feature Competition.
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