Some events were more important, politically and socially, than others. The Miss Black America contest defied the exclusion of African American women from the Miss America pageant. The crowning of ...

The same day, the first Miss Black America Contest is held in Atlantic City in protest of the "white" Miss America Pageant. Pepsi Cola withdraws its 11-year sponsorship, claiming the pageant no ...

Another was racism, since a woman of color had never won—and there had never been a black contestant. “Nor has there ever been a true Miss America—an American Indian,” they wrote.