http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18034102/ns/us_news-life/
This is the first time in the Georgia's high school history that they will be haivng a non-segregated prom. Both the white and black students in the school have had unofficial separated proms. The four senior students that were in office (two white and two black), discussed this idea with the principal at the begininning of the year to change this schools legacy. The theme for this years prom was "breakaway."
"Everybody says that's just how it's always been. It's just the way of this very small town," said James Hall, a 17-year-old black student who is the senior class president.
"But it's time for a change."
This is showing to be more difficult than what the students have planned. There has been talk around the school that some white students are still going to throw a competing prom. This is still a big year for the school, this was the first year that their homecoming court wasn't segregated, and they all voted for one, mixed-race, homecoming queen. The principle has been showing a lot of support for the students in hope that on April 1st, for the first non-segregated prom, will be a success.
I had just wrote another blog about the resegregation in schools, so I thought this was a good change and puts a positive spin on what some students are doing to integrate the school. This was sort of their own impact project on their town in hopes to bring everybody together instead of looking at their differences. If it doesn't work, that might be worse for the students who were trying hard to bring the class together. This might create more of an in-group/out-group effect between the students. Some of the students might be labeled more on the base of what "side" they are really on within the school. But if this works, that would be a great step for the students and the town.
Wow, this is really shocking... I didn't think that something like this would be allowed. Not the desegregation of prom, but rather than it has been segregated for so long. I know the south is a very different place, but still I would think that there would have been some kind of civil rights out cry before now. If this was a segregated school in a bigger city in the south they would have had a huge problem a long time ago. Really this is the kind of thing that could bankrupt a school system if a law suit was brought up. I think that the only way they have been able to get away with this is that the dance is "unofficial".
I think that I am even more surprised because there have been stories about schools not wanting students to bring same sex partners to the dance. We don't even think of segregation as being a problem in schools, although there are still many other race related problems in schools like the disparity in achievement. It is apparently still a problem in some places though.
There is a comment in the article about how people in the town still act like it is 20 or 30 years ago and that blew my mind. That would make it either 1990 or 1980, both were well after integration. The person was a graduate of the high school, so I wonder what their text books say about the civil rights movement, or if they have updated them since then, because really this isn't somthing that was just addressed in the last 20-30 years.