Forty Years Ago, Singer-Actress Vanessa Williams Became The 1st African American Crowned Miss America

Forty years ago, singer-actress Vanessa L Williams became the first African American to be crowned Miss America.

The New York native won the title on September 17th, 1983.

Williams has become widely known for her recording career, having recorded eight albums and scored numerous top ten hits and Grammy Award nominations. She also has had an illustrious acting career, starring on Broadway in the 1994 Musical Kiss Of The Spider Woman and the 2013 musical The Trip To Bountiful; starring in films such as Eraser (1996) and Soul Food (1997), and securing memorable television roles in sitcoms such as Ugly Betty (2006-2010) and  Desperate Housewives (2010-2012).

But before this, Williams was relatively unknown prior to her 1983 win. Williams was born in New York City and raised in Millwood, New York. She had been attending Syracuse University studying musical theater at the time she decided  to compete in Miss America. After winning Miss Syracuse 1983 and Miss New York 1983, WIlliams became Miss America 1984. Her win, however, was not without controversy.

The Miss America pageant was founded in 1921 and has long been seen as the vessel for the ideal woman to represent the United States. For its first 57 years, the winners who stood on stage, armed with flowers, a sash, and the coveted crown, were white females. The first African American contestant was Cheryl Browne, who competed in 1970 as Miss Iowa. She was only allowed to compete following the abolition of the ruling that women of color could not participate.

Writer Amanda Bell, in her 2023 article for The Messenger.com, “ ‘Secrets of Miss America’: Black Pageant Winners Reveal Racist Experiences”, writes, “the infamous rule from the 1948 pageant contract… was first put into place in the 1930s by the then-Miss America Organization head Lenora Slaughter, who justified its existence by saying it’s ‘absolutely impossible to judge fairly the beauty’ of Black and white contestants. The rule was later ‘phased out’ in the ’50s, but the homogeneous nature of the competition continued.”

Williams’ win was a fever pitch in the eyes of the pageant because the unthinkable had been done. Much like the racial backlash that Barack Obama endured when elected as the first African American president, Williams endured a similar experience. In a 2020 article with Good Housekeeping, WIlliams said, “Many said that they didn’t recognize me as Miss America because I was Black. Then some people in the Black community said that it wasn’t a fair win because I had lighter skin,” Williams has mentioned many times about having received death threats both to her and her family during her reign and having to have 24 hour security during her appearances.

Perhaps, the most famous element of Williams’ reign was on July 23rd, 1984, leaked nude photos of Williams resurfaced. Taken over a year prior to her win, these photos were being sold to Penthouse magazine for publication, without her consent. Once the pageant organization received word of this, Williams was given 72 hours to relinquish her title and crown. During a July 23rd 1984 press conference, Williams officially resigned. Runner-up Suzanne Charles completed the remainder of the reign.

As WIlliams got on with her life, history has reflected in new ways just how egregious Williams had been treated. There is no doubt the misogynoir that she endured struck a chord with Black women then and now for it uncovered an age old issue of archetypal and antiquated  standards of beauty. Did the scandal overshadow the historic win? At times it seemed that way. But what it can’t overshadow is history had been made and a possibility had been achieved that would open the doors for many future Black women