Several Qcity readers called or wrote asking about the Miss
Hampton University controversy.
Mainly, they wanted to know the process
for selecting the school’s queen.
I called Yuri Milligan, director of
university relations, who offered this: The Miss Hampton University
Scholarship Pageant is part of the Miss Virginia Pageant system. As
such, the young woman named Miss Hampton U each year gets an automatic
berth to the larger state pageant. Miss Hampton U is selected by four
judges, based on a number of criteria. Two of the judges represent the
school, and two represent the Miss Virginia Pageant system.
Milligan
said she had no information about the race of any of the judges. She also
confirmed that this year’s winner, 22-year-old senior nursing student
Nikole Churchill, attends a Virginia Beach satellite campus.
If you have no clue what any of this is about, click here.
A curious aside: The Hampton University Players and Company will soon
present “The Bluest Eye,” a play adopted from the Toni Morrison novel
that explores the legacy of racism and follows the tragic life of
Percola Breedlove, a young black girl looking for acceptance and the
true meaning of beauty in rural Ohio during the 1940s.
