African American spelling bee champ makes history with flair
Ben Nuckols
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Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Zaila Avant-garde understood the significance of what she was doing as she stood on the Scripps National Spelling Bee stage, peppering pronouncer Jacques Bailly with questions about Greek and Latin roots.
Zaila knew she would be the first African American winner of the bee. She knew Black kids around the country were watching Thursday night’s ESPN2 telecast, waiting to be inspired and hoping to follow in the footsteps of someone who looked like them. She even thought of MacNolia Cox, who in 1936 became the first Black finalist at the bee and wasn’t allowed to stay in the same hotel as the rest of the spellers.
July 9th, 2021 by janetg
History was made at Scripps National Spelling Bee!!!! Can you spell Murraya? (Hint: it’s a type of tree) 14-year-old Zaila Avant-Garde from New Orleans nailed it during the Scripps National Spelling Bee Thursday and walked away as the first-ever African-American winner in the competition’s nearly 100-year history. The only black winner before was Jody-Anne Maxwell, representing Jamaica in 1998. Avant-Garde, an 8th grader, receives $50,000. Other words she had to navigate: querimonious, solidungulate, and Nepeta Avant-Garde also holds three Guinness World Records for basketball, including the most “bounce juggles” in 1 minute.
Lisa Desjardins:
Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde from Harvey, Louisiana, became the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Zaila Avant-garde:
I have been, like, working on it for like two years. And then to finally have it, like, the best possible outcome, it was really good.
Lisa Desjardins:
Zaila Avant-garde:
I m hoping that, in a few years, a few years, I will see a whole lot more African American females, and males, too, doing well in the Scripps Spelling Bee, because it s, like, a really good thing, kind of a good gate-opener to being interested in education.
Lisa Desjardins:
Loop News
Jody-Ann Maxwell celebrating her Scripps Howard Spelling Bee win in 1998.
As accolades continue to pour in for Zaila Avant-garde, the first African American winner of Scripps Howard Spelling Bee Competition, many are forgetful of the fact that the first black winner of the competition was Jamaica s Jody-Anne Maxwell.
It has been 23 years since the Ardenne High alumnus won the hearts of Jamaicans when she created history on the international scene by winning the prestigious spelling competition in 1998.
Thursday s victory of the 14-year-old African American has rehashed the memories for many Jamaicans, who were also quick to point out to some Americans on social media who incorrectly rewrote history , dubbing Zaila as the first black person to win the Scripps Howard Spelling Bee, that Maxwell had already accomplished that feat.
WASHINGTON: Zaila Avant-garde, 14, became the first African American to win the 90-year-old Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday by correctly spelling ‘Murraya’, a genus of plants, staying cool after a near miss with a botanical word in a previous round.
Televised live on ESPN, complete with play-by-play commentary and interviews with the participants, the competition finals returned after being cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was once again held before a live audience at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.
Avant-garde, from New Orleans, is the first Black contestant to win since Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. The winner is also an accomplished basketball player, with several Guinness World Records to her name for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time.