With the rise of second-wave feminism and the civil rights movement during the 1960s , the Miss America pageant became the subject of a series of protests that attacked it as sexist , racist , and part of U.S. militarism . The first demonstration took place during the Miss America 1969 pageant held on September 7 , 1968 ( won by Miss Illinois 1968 , Judith Ford ) , when about 200 members of the group New York Radical Women demonstrated as part of the Miss America protest . Bev Grant 's photographs of this event have become iconic . In addition , a pamphlet distributed at the protest by Robin Morgan , '' No More Miss America ! '' , became a source for feminist scholarship . The protest was co-sponsored by Florynce Kennedy 's Media Workshop , an activist group she founded in 1966 to protest the media 's representation of African Americans , along with the feminist Jeanette Rankin Brigade and the ACLU . Morgan later stated that the Miss America pageant " was chosen as a target for a number of reasons : it has always been a lily-white , racist contest ; the winner tours Vietnam , entertaining the troops as a ' Murder Mascot ' ; the whole gimmick is one commercial shillgame to sell the sponsor 's products . Where else could one find such a perfect combination of American values — racism , militarism , sexism — all packaged in one ‘ ideal symbol , ’ a woman . " The protesters compared the pageant to a county fair where livestock are judged . They thus crowned a sheep as Miss America and symbolically destroyed a number of feminine products , including false eyelashes , high-heeled shoes , curlers , hairspray , makeup , girdles , corsets , and bras . Burning the contents of a trash can was suggested , but a permit was unobtainable ; news media seized on the similarity between draft resisters burning draft cards and women burning their bras . In fact , there was no bra burning , nor did anyone remove her bra . The Women 's Liberation Front later demonstrated at the Miss America 1971 pageant
Miss America 1969
Miss America 1969
Miss America