Michelle Taylor is a 22-year-old African American woman who was crowned Miss Alaska in 2013. Taylor was the first black woman to hold that title. After winning the title of Miss Alaska, she went on to compete in the national contest in Atlantic City, New … Read MoreMichelle Taylor (1992- )
Radmilla Cody, GRAMMY-nominated Navajo recording artist, was born in the Navajo Nation and grew up in Grand Falls, Arizona. Cody is of the Tlaa’shchii (Red Bottom People) clan and is also part of Naahilii (African American). She was the 46th Miss Navajo Nation, the first … Read MoreRadmilla Cody (1975- )
When Jennifer Josephine Hosten won the Miss World contest in 1970 she was the first woman from Grenada and the first of woman of African ancestry to hold the crown. She was crowned amid the greatest controversy in Miss World Pageant history. Hosten was born … Read MoreJennifer Hosten (1947- )
Marjorie Judith Vincent, the fourth African American to be crowned Miss America, was born on November 12, 1964 in Oak Park, Illinois. She was Miss America 1991. Vincent is the daughter of Lucien and Florence Vincent of Cap Haitien, Haiti. Vincent’s parents migrated to the … Read MoreMarjorie Vincent (1964- )
Suzette Charles (born Suzette De Gaetano), the second African American woman to hold the crown of Miss America, was born in Mays Landing, New Jersey, on March 2, 1963. She is the daughter of Charles Gaetano, a businessman, and Suzette (Burroughs) Gaetano, a music teacher. … Read MoreSuzette Charles (1963- )
Kimberly Clarice Aiken Cockerham, Miss America, 1994, was the fifth black woman to win the crown. Aiken was born on October 11, 1975 in Columbia, South Carolina to Charles and Valerie Aiken. At the time she won the crown, Aiken was only 18 years old and … Read MoreKimberly Aiken (1975- )
Debbye Turner (Bell), the third African American woman to win the Miss America crown, was born on September 19, 1965, in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is an American veterinarian, talk show host, and former beauty queen. She was Miss America 1990. Bell is the daughter of … Read MoreDebbye Turner (1965- )
Elwood Watson, a professor of history at East Tennessee State University, is one of the few African American cultural historians to focus his research on the Miss America pageant. In the article below he examines the success of eight black women in winning the pageant … Read MoreThe Racial Politics of Miss America
