“Murraya” never smelled sweeter for a Louisiana teen, who became the first African American champion in the history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night.
Zaila Avant-garde, 14, of Harvey, Louisiana, won the event in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, becoming only the second Black champion in the bee’s 96-year history. The only previous Black winner of the bee was Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won the event in 1998, The Associated Press reported.
The winning word was “murraya,” which is the genus of a fragrant tropical Asiatic and Australian tree, according to The New York Times.
Now you can spell Avant-garde as C-H-A-M-P-I-O-N.
13-year-old Zaila Avant-garde of Louisiana is your 93rd Scripps National #SpellingBee champion ‼️
The first African-American winner of the competition 👏 pic.twitter.com/y2Y5dAGcVN
— ESPN (@espn) July 9, 2021
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