STRONGER THAN is a special emphasis campaign that recognizes and celebrates the strength, courage, and resilience of women across diverse dimensions, historical and present day, sung and unsung. The 400YAAHC, in partnership with the Miss Black USA Pageant, presents the 2024 Stronger Than Crowning Achievements. The program looks at how African American women took what was meant to demean them, like laws forcing them to wear rags to cover their heads, and instead created crowns of beauty that were not only fashionable but were also often used as a sign of resistance and self-identity. Some of the 2024 Miss Black USA pageant contestants removed their crowns to demonstrate their head wraps and share why they chose to do so. We also salute this year’s Stronger Than Woman of the Year, Sarah Collins Rudolph, the 5th little girl in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL who survived, although she lost an eye.
Not only are Crowns worn by Pageant winners; but by women who have achieved greatness. The 2024 Stronger Than Crowning Achievements special recognizes women whose Crowning Achievements are stronger than the obstacles they face. Women like Dr. Andrea Gayle-Bennett, a retired Brigadier General who is the first Deputy Secretary of the Executive Office of Veterans Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
