Erika harold biography

1980(?)—

Pageant winner

Harold, Erika, photograph.

Erika Harold won the Miss America crown in 2003, becoming one of just a handful of African-American women to win the honor in its eight-decade history.

But Harold became embroiled in a minor controversy during her first month as Miss America, when she asserted that pageant officials had tried to stop her from speaking publicly on the topic of sexual abstinence.

Erika harold twitter

She did, however, prevail in using her high-profile media exposure to condemn bullying, noting that she was once teased so harshly that she was forced to transfer schools as a teenager in Illinois.

Harold was the first of four children in her family.

She was born around 1980 to a white father and a mother who was part African American and part Native American. She excelled in school, and even served as her eighth-grade class president, but when she entered the University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Illinois, Harold and a friend be