Professor of Howard University and former contestant Miss Kansas known for her bright smile and rapture for life was among the victims on Wednesday in a peace collision between a military helicopter and an aircraft of American Airlines near nearby Reagan National Airport.
Kiah Duggins, 30, was appointed a victim to the catastrophe, President of the University of Howard Ben Vinson III, who, during this difficult time, called for privacy and respect for his family, students and colleagues.
In a statement, the University said that Duggins had started a new chapter this fall as a professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Howard.
Kiah Duggins was known for her bright smile and rapture for life. (Howard University)
Victims identified in an airline accident involving jet and military helicopter American Airlines
“As a lawyer for civil rights, she dedicated her career to the fight against unconstitutional police procedures and unjust practices of financial guarantees in Tennessee, Texas and Washington, DC,” the statement said. “Plans for honoring her legacy will be shared in the coming days.”
Duggins was also civil rights A lawyer with a non -profit Civic Rights Corps based in Washington DC
The group website says that she collaborated with ACLU North California is Neufeld, Scheck and Brustin LLP to “challenge a police offense and other damage to the criminal legal system” before coming to the Civic Rights Corps. She studied the prison industrial complex for the abolition and legal movement as the Black Lives Fellow Law, a black liberation group.
She earned her diploma From the Harvard Faculty of Law, where she was president of the Harvard Law Office. Previously, she received a diploma at the Wichit State University and completed Fulbright Grant in Taiwan, according to Corpsus Civil Rights.
Emergency units respond to the site of a US aircraft and Black Hawk aircraft collision on the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia on Thursday. Duggins was one of 67 people who lost their lives in a disaster. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)
Larry Strong, who was Duggins’ director of a local competition when she was competing for Miss Kansas and Miss Butler County, told KBTX that Duggins was “such a bright future” before us.
In a Facebook post, he described her as “Miss Butler County 2014, 2015”
“Kiah was the top 10 finalists in 2014 and 2015 on Miss Kansas Pageant. In the fall, she was preparing to be a professor of right at Howard University. Keep her family in her thoughts and prayers in this difficult time. “
Annie Montgomery, Minister of the Bible Church in Wichiti, said KMUW to remember Dugrgins for her bright smile and her rapture for life.
“Kiah was the most beautiful young lady inside and out,” Montgomery said. “She was adventurous. She was so easy to make friends. She had a kind of personality that you just couldn’t resist.”
Part of the wreck is considered to be rescue ships searches the Potomac River water after the plane on access to the National Airport Reagan collided with a helicopter and crashed into a river near Washington, DC, January 30, 2025. Duggins was one of one of 67 people They lose their lives in a disaster. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
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Lacey Cruse, a former Sedgwick district commissioner, described Duggins as “brave and beautiful soul, light in the struggle for civil rights.”
“Her loss is cordial, not only for her family and friends, but also for anyone who believes in justice and equality,” she wrote on Facebook. “Let her work, her message and her spirit continue to inspire and make changes. She went too early, but never forgotten.”
Duggins was one of 67 people in which he lost his life disaster. The cause of the collision is explored.
