|
Vanessa Lynn Williams (born March 18, 1963) is an American actress and singer who is particularly well known for her role as Teri Joseph in the 1997 feature film ''Soul Food'', and the television characters Wilhelmina Slater in ''Ugly Betty'', Renee Perry in ''Desperate Housewives'', and Courtney Paige in ''The Good Wife''. Williams initially gained recognition as the first African American woman to win the title of Miss America when she was crowned Miss America 1984 in September 1983. Several weeks before the end of her reign, however, a scandal arose when ''Penthouse'' magazine bought and published unauthorized nude photographs of Williams. Williams was pressured to relinquish her title, and was succeeded by the first runner-up, Miss New Jersey 1983, Suzette Charles. Thirty-two years later, in September, 2015 Williams served as head judge for the Miss America 2016 pageant. At the beginning of the event, Miss America CEO Sam Haskell made a public apology to Williams for what was said to her during the events of 1984. ==Miss America 1984== When she was 20 years old, Williams was approached by scouts from the Miss Syracuse pageant who had seen her perform while a student at Syracuse University. Despite their encouragement,〔 Williams was not interested in participating in the pageant. She later changed her mind when she realized that she could earn scholarship money. Although she had never participated in a beauty pageant before, she won the title of Miss Syracuse in April 1983. She then went on to win Miss New York in July 1983〔 and finally was crowned Miss America 1984 on September 17, 1983, (becoming the first African American woman to win the title).〔〔 Williams later commented that she was one of five minority contestants that year, noting that ballet dancer Deneen Graham "had already had a cross burned on her front yard because she was the first black Miss North Carolina ()."〔 She also pointed out that "Suzette Charles was the first runner-up, and she was biracial. But when the press started, when I would go out on the - on the tour and do my appearances, and people would come up and say they never thought they'd see the day that it would happen; when people would want to shake my hand, and you'd see tears in their eyes, and they'd say, I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime - that's when, you know, it was definitely a very special honor."〔 Williams' reign as Miss America was not without its challenges and controversies, however. For the first time in pageant history, a reigning Miss America was the target of racist death threats and hate mail.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=People & Events: Breaking the Color Line at the Pageant )〕 Thirty years later, when Nina Davuluri became the target of a racist social media backlash after being crowned Miss America 2014, Williams commented: :When I met () we were talking how coincidental it was ... It’s crazy. Same night, same locale, and same state. And unfortunately, same bashing as well ... I wrote a book about everything that I went through, and I spent a lot of time talking about the death threats, the FBI, the sharpshooters ... it was a graver situation and more dangerous years ago—the change that was happening and the uproar because of the color of my skin. I don’t know all of the negativity (Nina ), and I frankly could care less, but I heard some of the comments about whether she’s Muslim and what religion she is, which is ridiculous. She won fair and square and she’s doing an amazing job. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Vanessa L. Williams and Miss America」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|