Originally, it was for teenagers from 13 to 17 years old, but by 1964 there were over 35,000 participants, which prompted an age division. The modern child beauty pageant emerged in the early 1960s, held in Miami, Florida. In 1968, the first Miss Black America pageant was held by the NCAAP the same night as the Miss America pageant (as a protest against pageant’s discrimination of non-whites).
