Today in 1983 - Vanessa Williams became the first black Miss America.
Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Williams made history on September 17, 1983 when she became the first woman of African American descent to be crowned Miss America. The first African Americans to appear in the Miss America Pageant came onstage as 'slaves' for a musical number in 1923. It was not until 1970 that a black woman, Iowa's Cheryl Brown, won a state title and made it to Atlantic City as a contestant. Lencola Sullivan, Miss Arkansas 1980, was the first African American to make it to the top five.
The pageant's long history of excluding women of color dates from its beginnings. At some point in the 1930s, it was formalized in the notorious rule number seven of the Miss America rule book. Instituted under the directorship of Lenora Slaughter, rule number seven stated that "contestants must be of good health and of the white race." As late as 1940, all contestants were required to list, on their formal biological data sheet, how far back they could trace their ancestry. In the pageant's continual crusade for respectability, ancestral connections to the Revolutionary War or perhaps the Mayflower would have been seen as a plus.
Williams' reign as Miss America came to an abrupt end when nude photos of Williams taken in 1982 with another woman were sold to Penthouse, and Williams was pressured to give up her crown and at least $2 million worth of contracts. Williams vowed to fight back, telling Poeple magazine, "I am not a lesbian and I am not a slut, and somehow I am going to make people believe me." Vanessa Williams' description of her infamous racy photos? "I looked like a New Wave female cop," she told People Magazine in 1984.
Williams rebounded from her scandal by launching a career as an entertainer, earning Grammy, Emmy, and Tony award nominations.She is also well-known for her outspoken support of gay rights, having won the Human Rights Campaign "Ally for Equality" award in 2008.
She can currently be seen on "Ugly Betty", playing Wilhemina Slater, a vicious fashion magazine editor.
