Miss America 2014, the 87th

Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...

pageant was held at the

Boardwalk Hall Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, formerly known as the Historic Atlantic City Convention Hall, is a multi-purpose arena in Atlantic City in Atlantic County, New Jersey. It was Atlantic City's primary convention center until the opening of the Atlanti ...

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Sunday, September 15, 2013.

Miss America 2013 Miss America 2013, the 86th Miss America pageant, was held at the PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada on Saturday, January 12, 2013. Results Placements * - America's Choice ** - Saved b ...

Mallory Hagan Mallory Hytes Hagan (born December 23, 1988) is an American politician and former beauty pageant queen, former news anchor and Business Consultant for Sysco Systems. She had won Miss America 2013 as Miss New York 2012 and is running for a seat i ...

crowned the winner,

Miss New York The Miss New York scholarship competition selects the representative for the state of New York in the Miss America scholarship competition. In the fall of 2018, the Miss America Organization terminated the Miss New York organization's license ...

Nina Davuluri Nina Davuluri (born April 20, 1989) is an American public speaker, advocate, and beauty queen who hosts the reality show ''Made in America'' on Zee TV America from Manhattan. As Miss America 2014, she became the first Indian American contest ...

, who served as Miss America until September 14, 2014.

Overview

Previously held in the month of January in the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...

Theatre for the Performing Arts The Zappos Theater, originally known as Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, is a mid-sized auditorium located at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip. The venue hosts a variety of events, including charity benefits, concerts and ...

(

Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino Planet Hollywood Las Vegas (formerly the Aladdin) is a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. The property was previously the site of an earlier resort known ...

), the

Pageant returned to both its original location and September broadcast after nine years.Miss America Mallory Hagan in D.C.: Making most of short tenure
/ref> Prior to the pageant, the partially restored

Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ The Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ is the pipe organ in the Main Auditorium of the Boardwalk Hall (formerly known as the Atlantic City Convention Hall) in Atlantic City, New Jersey, built by the Midmer-Losh Organ Company. It is the largest organ ...

was played for the first time in more than 40 years. The program was co-hosted by

Chris Harrison Christopher Bryan Harrison (born July 26, 1971) is an American television and game show host, best known for his role as the host of the ABC reality television dating show '' The Bachelor'' from 2002 to 2021. He also hosted its spin-offs ''The ...

and

Lara Spencer Lara Christine Von Seelen (known professionally as Lara Spencer; born June 19, 1969) is an American television presenter. She is best known for being the co-anchor for ABC's ''Good Morning America''. She is also a correspondent for '' Nightline ...

and was broadcast live on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. The panel of celebrity judges for the top 15 finalists were: Deidre Downs Gunn,

Carla Hall Carla Hall (born May 12, 1964) is an American chef, television personality and former model. She appeared in the fifth and eighth seasons of ''Top Chef'', Bravo's cooking competition show. She was a cohost on ''The Chew'', a one-hour talk sho ...

Barbara Corcoran Barbara Ann Corcoran (born March 10, 1949) is an American businesswoman, investor, syndicated columnist, and television personality. She founded The Corcoran Group, a real estate brokerage in New York City, which she sold to NRT for $66 million ...

Amar'e Stoudemire Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire ( ; he, אמארה יהושפט סטודמאייר; born November 16, 1982) is an American-Israeli professional basketball coach and former player who most recently served as a player development assistant for the Bro ...

Lance Bass James Lance Bass (; born May 4, 1979) is an American singer, dancer, actor, film, and television producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC. NSYNC's success led Bass to work in film ...

Joshua Bell Joshua David Bell (born December 9, 1967) is an American violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius. Early life and education Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, to Shirley Bell, a therapist, and Alan P. Bell, a psychologis ...

, and

Mario Cantone Mario Cantone (born December 9, 1959) is an American comedian, writer, actor, and singer with numerous appearances on Comedy Central including ''Chappelle's Show''. He also played Anthony Marentino in ''Sex and the City'' and Terri in ''Men In T ...

. In the final moments of the pageant,

Miss California The Miss California competition selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America competition. The pageant began in Santa Cruz in 1924 and was held there in 1925. During the years 1926 through 1946 in years when the Mi ...

Crystal Lee Crystal Lee is a co-founder of the Silicon Valley startup LifeSite. Lee was the first runner-up in the Miss America 2014 pageant, Miss California 2013, Miss Chinatown USA 2010, and Miss California's Outstanding Teen 2008. She is currently t ...

and

were the last contestants left on the stage. They were approached by co-host

who asked how they were feeling at that moment. Davuluri stated that she and Lee were "both so proud. We’re making history right here, standing here as Asian-Americans.” However, shortly after Davuluri was crowned Miss America 2014,

xenophobic Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

and

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

comments relating the proximity of the event date to the nine-eleven anniversary and to

anti-Indian sentiment Anti-Indian sentiment, also known as Indophobia or anti-Indianism, is a modern term referring to negative feelings and hatred towards the Republic of India, Indian people, and Indian culture. Indophobia is formally defined in the context of ant ...

appeared in American social media. News agencies cited tweets that misidentified her as Muslim or Arab, associated her with groups such as

Al-Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

, and questioned why she was chosen over

Miss Kansas The Miss Kansas competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the US state of Kansas in the Miss America pageant. Kansas has won the Miss America crown on three occasions. Ayanna Hensley of Dodge City was crowned Miss Kansas 2 ...

Theresa Vail Theresa Marie Vail (born October 1, 1990) is Miss Kansas 2013. She subsequently placed in the top ten of the Miss America 2014 pageant, where she became the first contestant to openly display tattoos (during the swimsuit competition) and won the ...

. Davuluri said that she was prepared for the social media response because "as Miss New York, I was called a terrorist and very similar remarks." Davuluri is the second Miss Syracuse to win the title after

1983, Vanessa Lynn Williams who was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

winner and

Miss America 1984 Miss America 1984, the 57th Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 17, 1983 on NBC Network. Debra Maffett (Miss California 1982) crowned her successor, Miss New York 1983, Vanessa Williams at ...

. Both Davuluri and Williams won when the pageant was held in Atlantic City and both faced a backlash over their respective wins. In addition, Congressperson

Grace Meng Grace Meng (born October 1, 1975) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 6th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, her district is in the New York City borough of Q ...

compared Davuluri to

1945,

Bess Myerson Bess Myerson (July 16, 1924 – December 14, 2014) was an American politician, model and television actress who in 1945 became the first Miss America who was also Jewish. Her achievement, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was seen as an af ...

(the first and to date only

Jewish-American American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...

winner and

Miss America 1945 Miss America 1945, the 19th Miss America pageant, was held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 8, 1945. Two days prior to the actual selection and coronation, the night of the talent competition, the Army Air Force Veteran ...

) who also faced bigotry during her time as Miss America.

Vail denounced this response on her blog and in interviews. In addition, Vail, herself, was the first contestant to display tattoos in the swimsuit competition (the

United States Army Dental Command The U.S. Army Dental Command, known as DENCOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Medical Command that provides command and control of the Army's fixed-facility dental treatment facilities, preventive care, dental research, developme ...

insignia on her left shoulder and the

Serenity Prayer The Serenity Prayer is a prayer attributed to the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) in 1943. However, Winnifred Crane Wygal wrote an early version in the Santa Cruz Sentinel of March 15, 1933, as noted in the above cited research ...

along her right side). Nicole Kelly,

Miss Iowa The Miss Iowa competition is the official preliminary for the state of Iowa in the Miss America Scholarship Competition. Bailey Hodson of Des Moines was crowned Miss Iowa 2022 on June 11, 2022 at Adler Theatre in Davenport, Iowa. She compete ...

, became the first contestant born without part of one arm (her left forearm)Miss America contestant born without forearm: 'I'm just like you'
/ref> and

Miss Florida The Miss Florida competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Florida in the Miss America pageant. Florida has twice won the Miss America crown. In the fall of 2018, the Miss America Organization terminated Miss F ...

Myrrhanda Jones Myrrhanda Jones is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Gainesville, Florida who was named Miss Florida 2013. Biography She won the title of Miss Florida on July 13, 2013, when she received her crown from outgoing titleholder Laura McKeem ...

, won the preliminary talent competition for her baton twirling routine in the week prior to the Miss America 2014 pageant, despite suffering a torn ACL and MCL in rehearsal just a few hours prior to her scheduled performance. During Miss America 2014, she performed with a decorated leg brace.

Results

Placements

* – America's Choice

Order of announcements

Top 15

# # # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Top 12

# # # # # # # # # # # #

Top 10

# # # # # # # # # #

Top 5

# # # # #

Awards

Preliminary awards

Quality of Life awards

Duke of Edinburgh awards

Other awards

Contestants

Video clips

Groundbreaking Miss America Winner Miss New York Takes Home Pageant Crown
–

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, September 16, 2013 *
After Defending Miss America From Racial Comments, George Takei Meets Nina Davuluri For First Time
–

, September 18, 2013 (

George Takei George Takei (; ja, ジョージ・タケイ; born Hosato Takei (武井穂郷), April 20, 1937) is an American actor, author and activist known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the fictional starship USS ''Enterprise'' in the televi ...

, ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

Sulu Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilāya sin Lupa' Sūg''; tl, Lalawigan ng Sulu), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago and part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamor ...

). *
Miss America 2014: How I Survived the Hate
–

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

, September 20, 2013.
#StandWithNina: Duke Stands with Miss America
–

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

References

External links

Miss America official website
{{Miss America 2014 Delegates

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2013 in the United States 2014 beauty pageants 2013 in New Jersey September 2013 events in the United States Events in Atlantic City, New Jersey