Black women have won the national beauty pageants multiple times—but for the first time they are wearing the crowns for Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss America simultaneously. “It is important to little brown and black girls to see three strong figures, three strong women, African-American women that are doing so much great work,” Nia Franklin, the reigning Miss America, told TheNew York Times. “People will argue that race doesn’t matter. But race does matter in America, because of the history, because of slavery.” Franklin, 25, won in September. The trifecta was completed this weekend when Cheslie Kryst, 28, was named Miss USA and Kaliegh Garris, won Miss Teen USA.
