A dad started the Miss Black America pageant to make his daughters’ dreams come true
By Natasha Brown, Will Kenworthy
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PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — Nearly six decades ago, John Anderson had a realization after watching the Miss America Pageant with his daughters in the Philadelphia area.
Wearing the crown would have just been a dream for them at the time.
“My daughters had watched the Miss America Pageant,” Anderson said. “I asked them, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Both of them said, ‘I want to be Miss America.’ And I knew that was a dream that could never come true.”
So, he decided to do something about it.
The Miss Black America Pageant celebrated its 58th anniversary in 2026, and to celebrate the milestone, you have to go back to its storied beginning and its founder, Anderson.
By 1968, there had never been a Black Miss America crowned. It was the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and he says he wanted to showcase Black women in a way not yet seen on a national pageant stage.
“It elevated downtrodden citizens who were doing everything they could to have their presence recognized in America and be accepted,” Anderson said.
Anderson was already producing events in Philadelphia at the time. In 1968, he booked a hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, right across the boardwalk from where the Miss America Pageant was going to be held, and held the first-ever Miss Black America Pageant on the same night.
That was the beginning of a historic 58-year run with the pageant moving from city to city, hosting Black women from around the country every year to compete for the crown.
A young Oprah Winfrey represented Tennessee in the early 1970s and is now one of the pageant’s most famous contestants.
Aleta Anderson has taken on the role of the pageant’s executive producer from her father. She said she took her father to school for show and tell one time.
“It’s quite a weight. It’s quite a responsibility, more so than just the family business,” Aleta Anderson said, “but a program that is so important to community and race relations and provides a platform of confidence.”
A platform where beauty is just one facet of so many amazing layers of criteria.
“Without consideration of height, size, hair texture, complexion, complexity, character,” Aleta Anderson said.
Miss Black America 2026 has been crowned, adding to the list of women holding the title. The evolution of a platform that stands the test of time and has changed the face of beauty in America.
“Black women after that started looking into the mirror,” John Anderson said, “seeing how beautiful they were and accepting the fact and the understanding and realizing the facts of their beauty and it’s still going on today.”
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