Fifty-plus beautiful, ambitious young women from around the country will be vying to nab the crown — and, hopefully, avoid the kind of scandals that have cost many pageant winners to step down amid major scandal. Us Weekly looks back at some of the most memorable dethrone pageant queens — including one who became an A-list star, still going strong today! Ten months later, however, an anonymous caller told Williams that arty nude photos taken of her back in were about to surface. Williams claimed she never signed a release authorizing use of the pics. She stepped down as Miss America amid the scandal in a July press conference, with the photos appearing in the September issue of Penthouse. Williams has stayed in the public eye since that controversy as a successful singer and actress with Grammy, Emmy and Tony Award nominations.

Williams was succeeded by Miss New Jersey Suzette Charles in July , when she was forced to resign over the unauthorized publication of nude photographs. Charles served as Miss America until September But when the press started, when I would go out on the - on the tour and do my appearances, and people would come up and say they never thought they'd see the day that it would happen; when people would want to shake my hand, and you'd see tears in their eyes, and they'd say, I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime - that's when, you know, it was definitely a very special honor. For the first time in pageant history, a reigning Miss America was the target of death threats and hate mail. The publication of these photos ultimately led to her resignation as Miss America. Williams believed the photographs were private and had been destroyed; she claims she never signed a release permitting the photos to be used.

Williams originally made history on September 17, , when she became the first Black woman to win the Miss America crown. She attended Syracuse University and studied musical theater. In , while working a summer job as a receptionist at a modeling agency in Mt. After Williams became Miss America, the photographer sold the pictures to Penthouse without her knowledge. Williams later dropped lawsuits against the magazine and photographer after it was learned that she had signed a model release form at the time the photos were taken.

Miss America is an annual competition open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and Originating in as a beauty pageant , the competition now judges competitors' talent performances and interviews in addition to their physical appearance. In January , the new board of directors increased the maximum age of titleholders to 25 years old, from There have been no Miss America winners from the following eighteen states and two U.