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Lincoln U. Student a National HBCU Queen

By Edna P. Harris
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Edna P. Harris Samantha Thomas says, "I just want to put Lincoln on the map."

Samantha Thomas of Chicago, a student at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., has been crowned the 2003-2004 Miss National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, competing in Atlanta against 38 other HBCU college queens.

The competition is intended to showcase the talent, intellect and personalities of the college queens.

"When they said the queen, all I heard was the 'Lin-'. I do not even hear the whole Lincoln University, I just said, 'Thank you Jesus.' It was just a rush," said Thomas, who entered the Sept. 20 contest as Miss Lincoln University.

Thomas, 23, won over the crowd with magic tricks involving her bird, Princess, and she delivered a speech, "Historically Black Colleges and Universities: The Root of the Black Community."

Thomas says that she will use both positions to tell people about Lincoln. "When you hear of HCBUs, they are kind of underrepresented, and I just want to put Lincoln on the map."

Thomas receives a $2,000 scholarship and becomes spokeswoman of the National Black College Alumni, a group based in Atlanta. The group has no Web site, and executive director Leah Dortch-Nesbit has not supplied the Black College Wire with further information about the organization.

"I had the dream of becoming Miss LU [Lincoln University] since I stepped my foot on this campus fall of 2000," said Thomas, adding that she was inspired by past queens and watched them closely. She had been Alpha Phi Alpha's Miss Black and Gold.

Thomas said she plans to be a news anchor in a market where minorities are not well represented. She wants a family and to one day have a talk show like her role model, Oprah Winfrey. "I love her, I think that she is the epitome of what a strong black woman can do, and be rich while doing it."

"I just want to be remembered as a person who made a standard for queens," she added. "We are more than a smile, a wave, more than just Ebony Magazine. We are people, people who make differences. We are future leaders and businesswomen, future girls that got it going on!"

Edna P. Harris is a student at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., who writes for The Lincoln Clarion.

Posted Oct. 15, 2003