First-ever co-campus queens causes uproar at Spelman College
Spelman College crowned two queens as the winners of its annual Miss Spelman College Pageant for the first time in school history — and folks are not pleased.
The all-women’s college caused a ruckus online when juniors Jillian Collier and Kinsley Wilson were both announced to have won the title of Co-Miss Spelman for the 2026-27 academic year after a scoring miscalculation.
It is the first time in the 43-year-history of the Miss Spelman competition that students have shared the title. And people at the college and throughout the HBCU ecosystem are still wondering exactly what happened.
Social media immediately erupted with comments and speculation about how the school could have managed such a kerfuffle, with many pushing Spelman for more transparency on how scores are tallied.
On April 11, Wilson was declared the sole winner.
Nearly a week later, after reviewing the count, on April 17 Spelman made a social media post announcing the addition of Collier as co-queen.
In a statement, Spelman said the school is grounded in integrity, transparency and sisterhood.
“Following a comprehensive review of the 2026 Miss Spelman Pageant, the College identified a technical discrepancy in the initial scoring results,” Spelman’s statement read.
“In a decision that reflects our commitment to equity and the exceptional caliber of our students, Spelman College has named Co-Miss Spelmans for the 2026-2027 academic year. This move ensures that the hard work and excellence of these scholars are acknowledged and fully celebrated.”
Collier declined to comment, and Wilson did not respond to a request for comment.
Social media users were quick to debate who should have been the rightful winner.
“If I would’ve won a crown and they told me that I got to share it, my momma would have turned that school upside down,” social media personality Mel Mitchel said. “Fix it. What’s going on with the children? I love Spelman pageant season. I live for this, but what’s going on down at the Spelman?”
Instagram account @scholarshipcollegemama said, “So, the solution seems to be they don’t name one, but two winners of the pageant,” adding that Spelman shut off the comments under the social media post about the two queens.
“If the scores were wrong, who actually won the pageant?” @scholarshipcollegemama asked. “Many women in the audience … said Jillian was the clear winner. So, how do we come up with two winners? How do we arrive at this moment right now?”
Spelman did not specify what this means for the co-queens, how responsibilities will be divided and how public appearances will be shared.
Spelman also announced this week that a record seven members of the Class of 2026 will share the coveted title of valedictorian.
The Miss Spelman College pageant is an annual tradition. Seven contestants compete for the crown and are scored based on a prepageant interview, performance and artistic expression, a question-and-answer portion, presentation and community achievement, and overall composite score.
The pageant draws a large crowd of students, Spelman alumni and families.
Miss Spelman College acts as the voice and face of the school as a student ambassador.
Although there has never been another known instance of two queens, there have been previous issues.
“Former Miss Spelman here,” Ashley Moss commented on an Instagram post about the pageant. “This has happened before and I would know because I was also originally named a 1st runner (up) in 2006.”
In 2006, Terricha Phillips was originally crowned Miss Spelman, but after what she called a “traumatizing” series of events, she was demoted to third runner-up, while Moss was given the crown.
Phillips said there was a recalculation of the popular vote less than 24 hours after the 2006 pageant.
“Because there is a history of this, there has to be full transparency, even if moving forward, they show how it is broken down between all the candidates,” Phillips said.
“The college does have a responsibility to the students to show them how the process is carried out, what improvements are made — even if there is a new auditing firm selected. It has to be completely transparent at this time, moving forward.”
Nonetheless, after the title rearrangement, Phillips said she and the rest of her court decided to move forward in the best way they knew how.
“We came together,” she said. “The other participants were real supportive with how it all went down. So, when we came back for our senior year, we got right to work. We had a great coronation.”
At this point, Moss said the queens and their attendants need resources and financial support from their community in order to move forward with their duties.
“You know what matters now?” she asked. “What comes next.”
She added, “Our HBCU queens matter.”
About the Author
Brooke Leigh Howard is a reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Black culture team, UATL.