Black queens most beautiful this Mothers’ Day
Although many moms consider
their daughters royalty, at
least three Black female parents
will celebrate Mothers’ Day 2019
boasting the unprecedented,
historic and simultaneous victories
their off-springs accomplished
becoming the first of
their race to be simultaneously
crowned queens of national
beauty pageants.
Their pride of blazing a trail
becoming the first of their race
to simultaneously represent the
Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and
Miss America pageants — Miss
North Carolina, Cheslie Kryst
became the most recent winner
and the triple crown addition
to two other beautiful Black
women by claiming a coveted
prize winning over a court of
50 competitors and the Miss
USA pageant in Reno, Nevada
on May 2.
Kryst is the ninth Black
beauty to win the crown in the
64-year history of the pageant.
Nia Franklin was already
the reigning 2019 Miss America
winner and Kaleigh Garris
completed the triumvirate
championing the 2019 Miss
Teen USA title.
“The three young women
who have focused their energy
on demonstrating how standards
of Black beauty speaks for
American standards of beauty
are to be commended,” Thomas
DeFrantz, professor in the
Department of African American
Studies at Duke University
said.
“These three standard bearers
prove that Black beauty is
at the heart of a 21st century
American ideal,” he added.
Miss America 2019, Franklin,
a native New Yorker won
her title last year in Atlantic
City, New Jersey and immediately
emerged a double winner
when she was announced the
first ever to nab the title without
having to strut out in a
swimsuit.
It was the first-time showcase
since the swimsuit category was
eliminated.
Teenager Garris hails from
New Haven, Connecticut.
She won her crown last
month and aspires to becoming
a trauma nurse.
Kryst the charm of the USA
is an attorney from Charlotte,
North Carolina, she boasts an
MBA from Wake Forest University
and was a former track
star.
Her win now places her
among contestants who will vie
for the Miss Universe title.
“Mine is the first generation
to have that forward-looking
mindset that has inclusivity,
diversity strength and empowered
women. I’m looking forward
to continued progress in
my generation,” Kryst reportedly
said after taking the crown.
As winner of the oldest beauty
pageant in America, Kryst must
now know that in 1921 Black
women were not even allowed
to compete in the Miss America
pageant because of a rule which
stated that contestants must be
of “the white race.”
She might also have been
Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America.
told that the Miss USA contest
was inaugurated in 1952 and
only when Carole Anne-Marie
Gist scored with judges in 1990
did a Black queen win the coveted
title.
One year later Janel Bishop
became the very first Black to
win the Miss Teen USA pageant.
It was only 1970 that Cheryl
Browne made history when she
became the first Black woman
to participate in the Miss America
contest.
Her entre enabled more than
a dozen Black beauties to compete
in either the Miss America
or Miss USA contests.
New Yorker, Vanessa Williams
Caribbean L BQ ife, May 10–16, 2019 11
broke the glass ceiling in
1983 winning the Miss America
title.
She excelled in theater, music
and other entertainment ventures
and reigns supremely as
an achiever.
Despite the fact 93 countries
represent the global spectrum,
only a handful of Black women
have ever won the Miss Universe
Pageant.
Trinidad & Tobago’s Janelle
Commissiong was first to nab
the title in 1977. The historic
Inside Life
By Vinette K. Pryce
Continued on Page 20