A Clark Atlanta University alumna is headed to the Miss USA stage after capturing one of the country’s most prominent state pageant titles.
Acacia C. McBride, a graduate of the Atlanta HBCU, has been crowned Miss California USA, earning the opportunity to represent the state at Miss USA.
For McBride, the victory represents the culmination of a journey filled with persistence, rejection and a willingness to venture far beyond the Mississippi community where she grew up.
“To work so hard for something and finally hear your ultimate YES is a feeling I hope everyone gets to experience in their lifetime,” McBride wrote on Instagram following her victory.
She described the crown as representing far more than winning a competition.
“It represents every ‘not yet,’ every rejection, every tear shed in private, every lesson, every year I chose to believe that my story wasn’t over,” McBride wrote.
Clark Atlanta helped change McBride’s trajectory
Long before winning in California, McBride made another significant leap.
Encouraged by her pageant coach, she left her Mississippi hometown and enrolled at Clark Atlanta University, a decision she later described as transformative.
“Attending Clark Atlanta changed the trajectory of my life,” McBride told the university. “It gave me the confidence to step outside of my comfort zone, become independent, and believe that I belonged in spaces I once thought were out of reach.”
The experience provided McBride with more than a degree.
As a student at the HBCU, she found herself immersed in an environment where Black culture, community and expectations of achievement intersected.
“Once I got to CAU, I found so much more than an education,” McBride said. “I found community, culture, and a sense of belonging that came from being surrounded by people who looked like me and expected excellence from one another.”
That foundation would eventually become part of a journey taking her from Mississippi to Atlanta and ultimately to one of pageantry’s biggest stages.
From an HBCU campus to Miss USA
McBride’s victory also gives Clark Atlanta another alumna representing the HBCU community on a national platform.
Her message following the win focused heavily on encouraging women who may not fit the traditional image they believe pageantry demands.
“To my small towners, girls that are told they’re too short, or that you have to wear custom gowns every year … I hope that my story inspires you to do YOU,” she wrote.
Now the next challenge arrives quickly.
McBride said she has approximately one month between winning the California crown and leaving to represent the state at Miss USA.
“And the work has just begun,” she wrote.
Whatever happens on the national stage, McBride’s journey already carries an HBCU connection she credits with helping shape the confidence required to get there.
For the Clark Atlanta alumna who once wondered whether she belonged in certain spaces, the next one will be the Miss USA stage.