Beeline to diversity: Young speller blazes path Shalini Shankar Editor's note: When Zaila Avant-garde, 14, won the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on July 8, she became the first Black American to win in the competition's history. Shalini Shankar, a scholar of spelling bees, breaks down the importance of this historical moment. Q: Why is it news that an African American won this championship? A: It's significant because not so long ago, Black children would have faced a lot of obstacles just to compete in this spelling bee. In fact, Black children were routinely sidelined from participating on the national stage until well after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Even after schools were ordered to racially integrate in the late 1950s, spelling bees were largely all-white affairs, thanks to regional organizers who routinely found ways to keep interested Black children from advancing in the contest.