Granite City woman will represent Illinois in national Ms. Juneteenth competition

East St. Louis’ Juneteenth Committee is heading to Philadelphia for its third year of sponsoring the national Ms. Juneteenth competition.

Each year, states send their prospective Ms. Juneteenth to the national stage to compete in a pageant. This year’s entry, Kyla Gerhardt, 18, of Granite City, left for the city of brotherly love on Tuesday.

“I’m nervous but excited,” Gerhardt said, “I’m praying for a win.”

Winners of this year’s competition, which takes place Oct. 14, will receive an Apple gift package, a beauty gift collection, sponsored gifts and prizes and a cash scholarship award.

The committee, which is a DBA under the nonprofit Community Development Sustainable Solutions, is dedicated to going around the state of Illinois and bringing awareness to the holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates the day Union soldiers informed enslaved people of their freedom in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865.

This year’s local queen, Kyla Gerhardt, will be the second from the metro-east to compete on the national stage.

Representatives are chosen for their grades, outstanding character and essays on civic issues surrounding Juneteenth, according to Stephanie Bush Taylor, who serves as the president of the Illinois Juneteenth Committee. Taylor says the competition is ‘more than a pageant’ and helps bring Black joy, awareness of the holiday and conversations of reparations to the local and national stage.

“We have been on the forefront, going to each municipality and making sure that they understand what diversity and inclusion is,” Taylor said. “Each one of these youth are torches in their community.”

Last year, Swansea’s Grace Glass served as the state’s Ms. Juneteenth. Glass, who now attends Eastern Illinois University, chose women’s empowerment as her primary cause. This year’s queen is passionate about enfranchisement and voting rights.

“I think as African Americans, we’re not heard as much as we should be, and as a young person, I think it’s especially important to vote and get involved in our community, in the world, just let our voices be heard,” Gerhardt said.

Ms. Gerhardt’s reputation as an accomplished young woman precedes her in the competition. She’s won numerous pageants and singing competitions, including a silver medal in her category at last year’s National NAACP Conference. Recently she sang at New York’s esteemed Carnegie Hall.

“There’s just something that people see in me that make them like, say, hey, I want her to win this, or I choose her for this, or I want her to have this” Gerhardt said. “Those kinds of thoughts keep me motivated.”