Zaila Avant-garde Becomes First African American National Spelling Bee Champ

Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old from Lousiana, took home the grand prize and won last night’s Scripps National Spelling Bee finals. Avant-garde made history not only as the first winner from her state, but also as the first Black American student to take home the top prize at the famous spelling bee, Deadline reports.

In an interview just hours after her win, Avant-Garde told Good Morning America, “It felt like really good to become a winner simply because of the fact that I’ve been like working on it for like two years and then to finally have it like the best possible outcome was really good.”

Before Avant-garde, the only other Black winner of the Scripps Spelling Bee was Jody-Anne Maxwell, who won representing Jamaica in 1998. Avant-garde added, “I’m hoping that in a few years I’ll see a whole lot more African American females and males too doing well in the Scripps Spelling Bee because it’s kind of sad how there’s like a great lack of those people.”

Avant-garde locked down her win in round 18 when she correctly spelled the word “Murraya,” which is defined as “a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers with imbricated petals.” She beat out 10 other finalists with the correct answer, taking home the grand prize of $50,000, plus a commemorative medal and the Scripps Cup. She also earned $2,500 and a a reference library from Merriam-Webster, plus $400 worth of reference works courtesy of Encyclopædia Britannica.

“Zaila demonstrated incredible mastery of the English language with poise and perseverance. The excellence of all of our competitors, their hard work and commitment to learning, and their distinct stories, capture hearts and minds across the globe,” said Adam Symson, president and CEO of The E.W. Scripps Company. “We take great pride in the way the Scripps National Spelling Bee, like so many of its spellers, adapted through difficult circumstances over the last year to safely bring back America’s favorite and longest-running educational competition.”