Frances Wilson, a student at Fresno City College, has won the Miss California Black Globe.

“It really felt good to represent my community and my state as well,” said Wilson.

The California Black Globe pageant was held Saturday Nov. 6t at the MLK Auditorium in San Diego, California.

The pageant has certain guidelines for Miss California Black Globe including that the model must be a single, is a natural born genetic female, aged 20-39, with or without children. She must have at least 25 percent Black heritage.

This was the first state pageant Frances has ever won. She has been entering pageants since 2008 starting with Miss Black Sacramento.   

At the age of six, Wilson began dancing, and this is what started her passion.  During middle school, she enrolled in cheer and developed a passion for modeling.

“All my life, I’ve been dancing and cheering, so I think beauty pageants are just an extension of that,” she said.  

Frances graduated from Sunnyside High School in 2007 and this is her second semester here at FCC.  She will be finished with her degree in African American Studies by the spring of 2012.  

The first pageant she ever attended was Miss Black Sacramento in 2008

Wilson feels that the pageants available in the past were for white women only and black women were not able to enter the competition, or that they simply had no have a chance of winning.  

“Pageants like this were created to uplift black women and not set that standard of beauty where you have to be skinny, have long hair, and that kind of thing,” she said. “There is no set standard of beauty.”

Frances explained that at general pageants, the girls backstage often times cause a cat fight, whereas at the black pageants, all the girls are all supportive. “It’s a sisterhood and you guys are there to uplift each other,” she said.

Frances has received a great deal of support from black talk radio, the black chamber of commerce, and the California Advocate.  “A lot of people are really close nit in this community have supported me through this whole process,” said Wilson.

These pageants meant a lot to Francis; this is one of the best experiences she’s ever had so she’s taken a lot from it.  She still keeps in contact with the girls from her first pageant in Sacramento. Although Francis has always been into fashion, her long term goal is to become a lawyer.  She hopes to attend Oak Brook College of Law and Government Policy.  Oak Brook is a four-year Christian law, school located here in Fresno.

For winning the Miss California Black Globe, Francis received a series of gifts including the crown and a sash.  She also received a paid for trip to the national competition in Atlanta Georgia for Miss Black Globe International in August 2011.