DiscoverIn Retrospect with Susie Banikarim and Jessica BennettVanessa Williams v Miss America: The Rise and Fall of the First Black Winner (Pt 1)
Vanessa Williams v Miss America: The Rise and Fall of the First Black Winner  (Pt 1)

Vanessa Williams v Miss America: The Rise and Fall of the First Black Winner (Pt 1)

Update: 2024-04-26
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You may know her as the Grammy-nominated singer, or for playing the cunning and iconic  Wilhelmina Slater on “Ugly Betty.” But before all that, Vanessa Williams was a bright young college student from New York who would make history as the first Black Miss America, in 1984. And yet before she could complete her term, she would be dramatically dethroned — in a nude photo scandal that would ignite a torrent of racism and see her branded as “the pageant's own Hester Prynn.” In this episode, Jess and Susie revisit the incredible making, and the staggering undoing, of the first Black Miss America.

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Vanessa Williams v Miss America: The Rise and Fall of the First Black Winner  (Pt 1)

Vanessa Williams v Miss America: The Rise and Fall of the First Black Winner (Pt 1)

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