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First Black Miss University at Ole Miss Reflects on Her Historic Win
A White woman took the crown but then a reconsideration changed history
A Black woman winning Miss University, the signature pageant at the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss, as it’s more popularly known, isn’t big news today. Mississippi finally agreeing to drop the Confederate flag from its state flag is. Back in 1997, however, it attracted mainstream attention, mainly because James Meredith had been shot for even attempting to attend school there in 1962, and landed Carissa Wells in the pages of the then-still mighty Jet magazine, Black America’s bible, among other local and national publications. Part of that coverage was due to how she got there.
The night of the pageant, there was a bit of a quandary as the top two women — Carissa Wells and Anne Crowson—tied for the title. Making matters worse, the rules dictating that the talent portion of the competition serve as the tiebreaker was further complicated by the five-way tie there. Ultimately, Anne Crowson, like all the White women since 1950, walked away with the crown.
Had it not been for an unsung Black female judge questioning the process, what happened that night would have been the end of this story. Since the Miss University pageant was and still is a qualifier to…
