Under bright lights and swirling rainbow-colored confetti, 14-year-old Zaila Avant-garde became the first Black American to win the scrippsnationalspellingbee yesterday, winning on the word murraya—a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees. “Does this word contain the English name ‘Murray,’ which can be the name of a comedian or just an English name in general?” asked Avant-garde, a rising ninth grader and native of Harvey, Louisiana, before answering correctly. This year, 209 competitors from the United States and abroad were up against a new format of the bee that included vocabulary questions—Avant-garde’s specialty. She says she spent two years preparing for the competition, succeeding in the nine final rounds to take home the win. In addition to the trophy, Avant-garde—who also holds three guinnessworldrecords titles for her basketball skills—received a $50,000 cash prize. “She really just had a much different approach than any speller I’ve ever seen,” said Cole Shafer...