Zaila Avant-garde becomes 1st African-American to win US Spelling Bee

Zaila Avant-garde becomes 1st African-American to win US Spelling Bee

Zaila Avant-garde, 14, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday by correctly spelling Murraya, a genus of plants, becoming the first African American to win the 90-year-old competition, which was cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Indian-Americans, who have been dominating the National Spelling Bee for years, had to be satisfied with the 2nd and 3rd positions.

Chaitra Thummala, a 12-year-old from San Francisco and Bhavana Madini, 13, from New York won the second and third place at the keenly-fought competition, which was attended by US First Lady Jill Biden. Avant-garde correctly spelt “Murraya”- a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers to win the competition and USD 50,000 prize money on Thursday. Avant-garde outlasted a field of 11 finalists, including Indian-Americans, to win the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee title and the first-place prize of USD 50,000 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. Also an accomplished basketball player who holds several Guinness World Records for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time, Avant-garde, from New Orleans, is the first Black contestant to win. The 8th-grader also became the first Louisiana resident and the first African-American to win the title in the competition’s 93-year history.

The only Black winner before was Jody-Anne Maxwell, representing Jamaica in 1998. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is an annual competition that has been held in the US since 1925.