For 54 years, the Miss Black Sacramento Scholarship Pageant has celebrated the brilliance, talent, and resilience of Black girls and women, demonstrating that beauty extends far beyond appearances. As Michelle Obama famously said, “We are beautiful; yes, we are smart; yes, we are fearless. We deserve it, and now we need to believe it.”
The phrase captures the essence of the pageant, which has grown from a traditional beauty contest into a scholarship-focused program designed to empower young women to tell their stories and embrace their full selves.
The 54th annual Miss Black Sacramento Scholarship Pageant on Nov. 16 at Sheldon High School Performing Arts Center continued a tradition that has celebrated generations of young Black women in the Sacramento region since 1970. The theme for this year was “Cozy in my skin.”
Maddison Morian Brodeur (Miss Black Sacramento) and Grace Charity Longmire (Miss Black Teen Sacramento) were crowned the top winners. Longmire, 17, is the daughter of Alisha and London Longmire. She is a senior in the class of 2026 at Valley High School, where she maintains a 3.5 GPA. A natural leader, Longmire serves as her class president, a role she has held proudly throughout all four years of high school. She is also the school’s rally spirit commissioner and its representative on the Elk Grove Unified School District’s Student Voice Committee, where she helps advocate for student perspectives across the district.
Her school involvement extends beyond leadership. She is the captain of both the cheer team and the track and field team, and an active member of the Black Student Union and the Let’s Flourish Club.
Longmire’s commitment to service extends into her community. The city appointed her as the Sacramento youth commissioner for District 8 under Councilmember Mai Vang. Now serving her second term, Longmire is the commission’s vice chair.
Brodeur, 22, is a 2025 graduate of UC Santa Cruz, where she earned dual bachelor’s degrees in sociology and community studies. She graduated with honors and a 3.84 GPA. The proud daughter of Michelle Richardson and Matthew Brodeur, she held more than 10 leadership roles during college. Her dedication to leadership and advocacy earned her several awards, including dean’s honors and the Stevenson College Leadership Award.
A Miss Black Teen Sacramento Princess in 2020, Brodeur continues to lead with grace, intellect, and purpose. She is also a trained birthing doula and is passionate about supporting women’s health and empowerment. She hopes to one day serve as an elected official and open a doula and tea business, combining healing, leadership, and advocacy for generations to come.
Executive Director Angel Stewart, who oversees the planning of the pageant, said the event never has been simply about beauty.
“We don’t really call it a beauty pageant anymore,” Stewart said. “We say that because all Black women are beautiful, although when it was founded it was more like a beauty pageant. It used to include a swimsuit. Swimsuit was a category, and I got rid of that 15 years ago.”
The shift, Stewart said, reflects how the program has evolved alongside the community it serves.
“We didn’t want to just recognize Black women for that external beauty. We wanted to recognize them for everything as a whole,” she said.
The pageant was co-founded by Stewart’s grandmother, the late Mrs. Velma Stokely Flournoy, and the late Mr. Jimmie Royster in 1970. Stewart said multigenerational participation remains a program hallmark. “We have three generations of Miss Black Sacramento: grandmother, mother, and now a 3-year-old who’s at rehearsals,” she said. “We’re proud of our alumni. They’re lawyers, teachers, and real estate owners.”
The crowned winners will receive scholarship funds, appear at community events, and often perform throughout Sacramento.
“What it opens up for them is amazing,” Stewart said. “They’re meeting people, telling their story, getting scholarship opportunities, sometimes even getting jobs.”
Contestants who don’t win still receive mentorship, community service opportunities, and invitations to appear at events throughout the year. Many return to the pageant to compete as older teens or adults.
Today, the pageant places its highest emphasis on education, communication skills, and personal growth. The contest is structured around a point system that rewards confidence, self-expression, and academic readiness more than traditional pageant aesthetics.
Stewart leads weekly Zoom sessions months before the pageant. In these sessions, she teaches contestants how to talk about their achievements, write biographies, and speak formally about their identities.
“That’s probably one of the best things we do,” Stewart said. “Young people, women — Black women especially — don’t know how to tell their great stories so that they see what they’ve accomplished and how they shine.”
Other scoring categories include talent, essay writing, and the “personality scene,” a public-speaking presentation where contestants introduce themselves and explain how they are “cozy in their skin.” This year’s nine contestants displayed talents from dance to poetry to instrumental music.
Miss Black Teen Sacramento 2020 Bethany Onic shared how the pageant helped her gain confidence and sharpen her interpersonal skills.
“Winning the pageant for me was beautiful to say the least. As young women, young black women, it’s important for us to know how to go into a room and demand respect and attention,” Onic said. “Thanks to MBS, I recently did two pageants through my university and won the best interview both times. I’m always complimented on how I speak and articulate myself.”
Though the pageant once drew 15 to 20 contestants, the number has decreased in recent years. Stewart attributes the change not to declining interest but to the expansion of opportunities now available to young Black women.
“Back then, we couldn’t do anything else. You couldn’t be in the regular Miss Sacramento,” she said. “Now there are so many other competing things. And we appreciate that.”
Stewart hopes the pageant expands into more year-round programming, including mentoring, etiquette training, and increased mental-health support. Despite challenges, Stewart said the pageant’s mission remains stronger after 54 years.
“My grandmother always said you can walk into any room and feel confident. That’s a big part of what we teach,” Stewart said. “We want these girls to see themselves the way we see them.”