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The 69th Miss Universe competition will take place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Hollywood, Florida. The event will air live on FOX beginning at 7 p.m. Central time.
If Branch wins, she would be the first Mississippi native to ever hold the title and the first Miss USA to win the competition since 2012.
Starkville native Shauntay Hinton was the first Black woman from Mississippi to win Miss USA in 2002, but she represented Washington, D.C., in that competition.
Becoming the first Black woman to win the title was an interesting experience for her because it was an historic moment, she said.