“Miss America represents the highest ideals. She is a real combination of beauty, grace, intelligence, and artistic refinement. She is a type which the American girl might well emulate.”

     Oakland’s connection to the Miss America Pageant dates back to 1924, when a young woman from Oakland, Fay Lanphier finished 3rd to Miss America 1924 Ruth Malcomson as “Miss Santa Cruz 1924”. Fay returned the following year as “Miss California” and won the title of Miss America 1925, becoming the first Miss America to represent an entire state, the first West Coast Miss America, and the first to earn a living by promoting her title. 2006 marked the 82nd anniversary of the Miss California Pageant, making it one of the oldest state pageants in the Miss America system. After a 30 year absence, 2004 marked the return of Miss Oakland to the Miss California Organization.

             The Miss Oakland title was awarded again 1927 and lapsed until 1947 when it was awarded annually until 1970. The Miss America Organization began awarding college scholarships as prizes in 1945 and the contestants from Oakland reaped these rewards, placing in the Top 5 seven times in the first 10 years of being re-established with Miss Oakland, Shari Raap being crowned Miss California 1964. Shari competed in Atlantic City and won a preliminary swimsuit award. More detailed information of the early 1960s is a bit sketchy, but in 1968, Tanya Dennis was crowned Miss Oakland, becoming the first African-American to wear the crown, thus being one of the early African-Americans to compete for the title of Miss California; with Tanya placing as 3rd Runner-up. Laomia McCoy was crowned Miss Oakland 1969, becoming the second African-American titleholder and placing as 2nd Runner-up at Miss California.

             October 2004 saw the rebirth of the Miss Oakland Scholarship Organization, crowning the first titleholder in over 30 years in March 2005. We began with 10 contestants and the relatively modest scholarship fund of $1900, which we increased in 2006 to $5,650. Though we had only 8 contestants, each contestant received some form of scholarship for participating. Miss Oakland 2005, LaTasha Seliby is currently in her second year at the University of Alabama, Birmingham Medical School having used the scholarships she earned as Miss Oakland ($1,000) and by competing at Miss California ($1000, and $800 Spirit of Miss California Award) to apply to medical schools and was awarded a full scholarship of $34,000/year for 4 years. Our Miss Oakland 2006, Rachel Kerstner has begun a new job with a major office supply company and plans to use her scholarship money to finish up her degree at San Francisco's Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Miss Oakland 2007 is Paula-Sue Silva. Paula is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Economy of Industrial Societies. She has gained over $2,000 through her winning the Miss Oakland and her participation in Miss California. She plans to use her scholarship to continue her education with the goal of obtaining a Masters in Business and Administration and Family Psychology and eventually operating her own psychotherapy practice with the emphasis of helping victims of domestic violence. Our most recent former, Carly Claffey, Miss Oakland 2008, lives and works in the Bay Area and plans to continue her platform work of supporting animal rescue. Paula, Rachel, LaTasha and Carly are perfect examples of the caliber of young women who are found throughout this program. It is these young women, the young women of Alameda County and my community of Oakland specifically, who benefit from involvement in our program.