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Zalia Avante Garde Wins Scripps Spelling Bee, Only Black To Win After Jody-Ann Foster Of Jamaica

Zalia Avant-garde after win­ning the spelling Bee competition

I can­not resist writ­ing this short sto­ry of Zaila Avant-garde, the four­teen-year-old teenag­er from Louisiana who recent­ly won the Scripps National spelling Bee competition.
In case you are won­der­ing why I said I could not resist this sto­ry? Here goes; young Zalia is only the first African-American to win the com­pe­ti­tion and only the sec­ond Black to win the com­pe­ti­tion in its 96-year history.
So who was the oth­er Black to win the competition?
Glad you asked.…. It was our very own Jamaican Jody-Anne Maxwell in 1998; where else would the oth­er stand­out come from?

19 Years Ago, JAMAICAN Jodi-Ann Maxwell Won The Scripps National Spelling Bee at the age of 12....She made history as the first non-American to win the competition and a cash prize of
Jamaica’s Jody-Anne Foster win­ning in 1998

Young Zalia’s dream is to play in the WNBA; she cur­rent­ly holds three Guinness world records for her bas­ket­ball skills, includ­ing a record for most bounce jug­gles in one minute with four basketballs.
We cer­tain­ly wish her well going forward.