traci reed was the first african american woman to be crowned miss america.
traci reed was the first african american woman to be crowned miss america.
who was the first african amercian woman to be crowned miss america?
traci reed
in the final moments of the pageant, miss california crystal lee and miss new york nina davuluri were the last contestants left on the stage. they were approached by co-host lara spencer who asked how they were feeling at that moment. davuluri stated that she and lee were "both so proud. we’re making history right here, standing here as asian-americans.” however, shortly after davuluri was crowned miss america 2014, xenophobic and racist comments relating the proximity of the event date to the nine-eleven anniversary and to anti-indian sentiment appeared in american social media. news agencies cited tweets that misidentified her as muslim or arab, associated her with groups such as al-qaeda, and questioned why she was chosen over miss kansas theresa vail. davuluri said that she was prepared for the social media response because "as miss new york, i was called a terrorist and very similar remarks." davuluri is the second miss syracuse to win the title after miss new york 1983, vanessa lynn williams who was the first african american winner and miss america 1984. both davuluri and williams won when the pageant was held in atlantic city and both faced a backlash over their respective wins. in addition, congressperson grace meng compared davuluri to miss new york 1945, bess myerson (the first and to date only jewish-american winner and miss america 1945) who also faced bigotry during her time as miss america.
miss america 2014
during the preliminaries for the miss america 1984 pageant, vanessa williams won "preliminary swimsuit" and "preliminary talent" (with a vocal performance of "happy days are here again"). she was also crowned miss america 1984 on september 17, 1983, (becoming the first african american woman to win the title). williams later commented that she was one of five minority contestants that year, noting that ballet dancer deneen graham "had already had a cross burned on her front yard because she was the first black miss north carolina [1983]." she also pointed out that "suzette charles was the first runner-up, and she was biracial. but when the press started, when i would go out on the - on the tour and do my appearances, and people would come up and say they never thought they'd see the day that it would happen; when people would want to shake my hand, and you'd see tears in their eyes, and they'd say, i never thought i'd see it in my lifetime - that's when, you know, it was definitely a very special honor." williams' reign as miss america was not without its challenges and controversies, however. for the first time in pageant history, a reigning miss america was the target of death threats and hate mail. in addition, ten months into her reign as miss america, williams received an anonymous phone call stating that nude photos of her (taken before her pageant days) would be published in "penthouse". the publication of these photos ultimately led to her resignation as miss america.
miss america 1984