deadline.com
87%
721
Scripps National Spelling Bee Has First African American Winner Ever In 8th Grader Zaila Avant-Garde
Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde took the top prize at the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday by correctly spelling the word “murraya.” For those who aren’t botanists — or brilliant 8th graders — murraya is “a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae,” according to Wikipedia.
