Miss America: from Vanessa Williams to Kimberly Aiken

Ebony, Jan, 1994 by Karima A. Haynes

As Miss America, Aiken will also speak out on behalf of the homeless, the cause she has chosen to champion during her reign. A tireless advocate for the poorest of the poor, she founded Homeless Education and Resource Organization (HERO), a community service group that collects food and clothing for the homeless population of Columbia, S.C.

The compassionate beauty queen reveals that at one time one of her uncles was homeless in New York City, but now lives with a friend. She remains mum about the details of his situation in deference to his privacy.

Even with all the attention she has received as Miss America, Aiken remains serene and down-to-earth. "One minute I'm just a regular kid, and the next minute everyone wants to know what I think about everything," Aiken says. "But I enjoy it. People listen to me now and I have an avenue to get across what I think is important."

One thing that is important to Aiken is making her parents, Charles and Valerie Aiken, and her 11-year-old sister, Kristin, proud of her.

"My little sister is really an inspiration to me," Aiken confides. "I am one of her role models as well as her sister. It's important to me that I make a good impression on her."

In the coming year, Aiken will log some 20,000 miles a month. She is looking forward to the travel, but will likely miss her family and her boyfriend, Louis Barber, a 19-year-old chemistry major in North Carolina.

"We have been living in different states since last April," she says, referring to the time when she transferred from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to the University of South Carolina. "So this won't be much of a change."

But Aiken's life will change, just as the lives of the four other Black women have changed since capturing the crown. The Miss America title is the common thread that binds these beautiful, intelligent and gifted Black women together. Perhaps Aiken explains the Miss America bond best when she says, "We all have different backgrounds, but it is as if we are all part of the same sisterhood."