On Thursday evening, April 3, the longest-running national pageant in the Philippines ... In the images, the ladies were set against a white background wearing identical pink tank tops emblazoned ...

Pageant organizers have drawn up contracts over the years for sponsors of local contests. This one, from 1948, includes the notorious rule number 7 barring non-white women from competing.

There was no equivocating. Women’s beauty—white women’s beauty—was a tool. Since its inception, the pageant has evolved in some ways and not so much in others. The talent competition was ...