Thank you again for reading and for doing this thing that we all do together.

I must correct you on one grave error. In note #2 you mention Lenora Slaughter instituting rule #7. That is not true. Rule #7 was initiated at the local level only and not all locals had such a rule. By the way, the rule predates Lenora’s involvement with the pageant as some locals excluded black women as early as 1924. The national pageant has never had a requirement about race in order to compete. Women of color have competed at Miss America dating back to the 1920s. In fact, Lenora Slaughter is the one who outlawed rule #7 back in 1948 when a local pageant in Washington was told by the state pageant that they could not allow women from the local Native American reservation to compete. (Note that Native American women had already competed at the national level – two that I can recall off the top of my head, made the semi-finals in 1940 and 1941.) Lenora intervened and allowed the local to accept Native Americans as contestants. The Miss Hawaii and Miss Puerto Rico pageants were started in 1948 and they sent their winners (most of whom were not white) to Miss America. Harriet Vawter – a black woman – competed in the 1948 Miss Philadelphia pageant. Nine black women competed in the 1948 Miss West Oakland pageant in California. Three black women won local Miss America preliminaries in 1959. Consider also that some of the Puerto Rico titleholders were likely biracial – Hispanic and Black.

Two possible stories about the pageant to consider 1- That a woman was in charge of the pageant during a time when most women worked at home. 2 – The pageant actually ended rules that promoted racism in 1948. (Although let us not kid ourselves – many local pageants found creative ways around the ban on racism.)

Just thought you would want to know.

Thanks for the great read!
Tom