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Miss Black America Television Promotional Advertisement

The Miss Black America competition began in 1968 as a reaction to the discrimination and racism in the mainstream Miss America Pageant. The competition was pioneered by J.Morris Anderson who had two young daughters who had dreams of competing in the Miss America Pageant. Because he knew that the racist standards would keep them from even being considered for the crown he decided to create a similar pageant that celebrated black beauty. The pageant took place on the same night and in the same city as the Miss America pageant in hopes that newsmen would drop by after leaving the Convention Hall. The winner of the first Mss Black America was Saundra Williams, a 19-year-old from Philadelphia.
Sources: https://www.colorlines.com/articles/miss-black-americas-story-segregation-celebration and  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Black_America#:~:text=It%20was%20originally%20a%20local,Ritz%2DCarlton%20in%20Atlantic%20City. And https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-black-miss-america-pageant-takes-place
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