Jennifer Hosten, representing Grenada, was crowned Miss World 1970 at the Royal Albert Hall, becoming the first Black woman to win the title.
On 20 November 1970, Jennifer Hosten, representing Grenada, was crowned Miss World at the Royal Albert Hall in London, making history as the first Black woman and first woman of colour ever to win the pageant, as well as the first representative of Grenada to capture the crown.
The 1970 contest was one of the most contentious and historically significant in the pageant's history. It took place amid loud protests from the Women's Liberation Movement, who disrupted the live broadcast by throwing flour bombs and smoke bombs at host Bob Hope, objecting to the commodification of women's bodies. Simultaneously, the competition became a flashpoint for racial politics: for the first time, the pageant fielded two separate Miss Africa South and Miss South Africa contestants (one Black, one white) in response to apartheid-era controversy, and rumors circulated that some judges' scores were altered to favor a white contestant over Hosten.
Despite the turmoil, Hosten's win stood as a landmark moment of representation, arriving during the height of the global civil rights and Black pride movements. Her victory challenged decades of Eurocentric beauty standards embedded in international pageantry and offered visible proof that Black women could be recognized on the world's most prominent beauty stage.
The event's dramatic backstory was later dramatized in the 2020 film Misbehaviour, and Hosten herself chronicled the experience in her 2020 memoir. Her win remains a touchstone moment in the history of race, gender, and global media spectacle.