Keith Boykin, The Daily Voice
- The Miss Black America pageant is on its way back. Although the pageant has been around for four decades, it seems as though it stopped operating around 1998, when the last known winner was crowned.
Now organizers of the pageant are trying to revive the 40-year-old brand that has been virtually defunct since the late 1990s. And its sponsored by Walmart. I’m not really into pageants (I guess they don’t call them “beauty pageants” anymore), but I do know about the Miss Black America contest and its storied history. Even Oprah Winfrey competed in the contest back in the day.
Years ago on a business trip, I met a young woman who had just become Miss Black Michigan, and I remember being impressed by her beauty, talent and accomplishment. But that seems like ancient history now. That was back in the day when JET magazine published its “Beauty of the Week” page in the back of the magazine. Things have changed since then, haven’t they?
Maybe it’s because we’ve had several African American women win the Miss America pageant. Or maybe because we have a black president. Or maybe pageants just don’t seem that relevant anymore.
