Segregated prom
{{short description|Practice of holding separate school proms for white and black students}}
A segregated prom refers to the practice of United States high schools, generally located in the Deep South, of holding racially segregated proms for white and black students. The practice spread after these schools were integrated, and persists in a few rural places to the present day. The separate proms have been the subject of frequent (often negative) press coverage, and several films.
History
Prior to the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Board of Education, most schools in the southern United States were racially segregated.{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XggaAAAAIBAJ&pg=4784,3807511 | title= Deep South Adamant But Some Schools In Once-Segregated Area Begin Integrated Slate | author= William O. Tome | newspaper=Times-News | date= September 20, 1954 | accessdate=March 17, 2010 }}(Reporting on early integration steps after Brown was decided, article quotes an unnamed white student, "What we'll do about dances, Will they go to our proms.") The process of integration of schools was slow, and many schools did not become integrated until the late 1960s and early 1970s. In order to avoid having to hold an integrated prom, many high schools stopped sponsoring any prom, and private segregated proms were organized as a replacement.{{cite news | url= http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2003/05/14/36prom.h22.html | title= In Some Southern Towns, Prom Night a Black-or-White Affair | author= Mark Walsh | newspaper=Education Week | date= May 14, 2003 | accessdate=March 17, 2010 }}("... the 1970s. That is when many Southern schools were belatedly integrated, and the time when a new set of traditions was born. While black and white students now sat side by side in classrooms and on the school bus, the races would still often gather separately when it came time for the biggest dance of the year."){{cite news | url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24prom-t.html?_r=1&hp | title= A Prom Divided | author= Sara Corbett | newspaper=The New York Times | date= May 21, 2009 | accessdate=March 17, 2010 }} Sometimes a concern over interracial dating was cited as the reason for not holding a single prom.{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=V740AAAAIBAJ&pg=5596,561915 | title= Some Taylor County Students Are Reviving Segregated Prom | author= Elliott Minor |agency=Associated Press | newspaper=Rome News-Tribune | date= May 2, 2003 | accessdate=March 17, 2010}} ("After integration in the early 1970s, school officials stopped sponsoring a prom, in part because of fear of interracial dating.") Other schools cited liability concerns as the reason for not sponsoring a prom.{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-cosAAAAIBAJ&pg=6081,2498337 | archive-url= https://archive.today/20130124221923/http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-cosAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8RMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6081,2498337 | url-status= dead | archive-date= January 24, 2013 | title= Segregated prom a sure sign of spring for Alabama town | agency= Associated Press | newspaper=Star-News | date= May 6, 1990 | accessdate=March 17, 2010}} (reported on segregated proms at Eufaula High School in Alabama, noting that "opponents of segregated proms claim the white-controlled school board uses worries over liquor and liability to dodge the issue of mixed-race dances")
In addition to segregated proms, some schools have also elected black and white homecoming kings and queens, class officers, and even awarded separate black and white superlatives such as "Most Likely To Succeed."{{cite news | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CleCKauyN34C&pg=PA94 | title= Separate but equal? | author= Shapiro, Dana | newspaper=Spin | date= May 2003 | accessdate=March 22, 2010}}{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042200562.html | title= Ga. School Throws First Integrated Prom | author= Greg Bluestein |agency=Associated Press | newspaper=The Washington Post | date= April 22, 2007 | accessdate=March 23, 2010}}(reporting on first integrated prom in Turner County, Georgia, also noting that "Aniesha Gipson, who became the county's first solo homecoming queen last fall as it abandoned the practice of crowning separate white and black queens.") School sponsored separate events, including separate homecoming queens or superlatives, have been deemed to violate federal law by the United States Department of Justice.{{cite news | url= http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/10/13/07ocr.h24.html?tkn=UNYFviETHGPbkrdA14ryrqrE5rism5gAMofM | title= U.S. Warns Schools on Racially Separate Activities | author= Caroline Hendrie | newspaper=Education Week | date= October 13, 2004 | accessdate=March 23, 2010 }}("Practices such as holding segregated high school proms or naming separate race-based sets of recipients for senior-year honors 'are inconsistent with federal law and should not be tolerated,' says the joint letter from the civil rights offices of the federal departments of Justice and Education.' We have found, for example, that some school districts have racially separate homecoming queens and kings, most popular student, most friendly, as well as other superlatives,' says the letter. 'We have also found that school districts have assisted in facilitating racially separate proms.'")
In 1990, The New York Times reported that 10 counties in Georgia were still holding segregated proms.{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B3EVAAAAIBAJ&pg=1882,3474562 | title= Segregated Prom Finally Abandoned | author= Isabel Wilkerson | newspaper=The Register-Guard (reprinted from The New York Times) | date= May 14, 1990 | accessdate=March 17, 2010}} (reporting on first integrated prom at Peach County High School in Fort Valley, Georgia held in 1990) Though the practice has been reported to be on the decline since 1970, occasional press reports seem to show it persists in some rural locations.{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LYcfAAAAIBAJ&pg=4734,5570611 | title= Georgia high school holds segregated prom | agency= Associated Press | newspaper=Spartanburg Herald-Journal | date= May 11, 2003 | accessdate=March 17, 2010}}{{cite news | url= http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20030519/NEWS/305190610?Title=What-segregated-proms-convey | title= What segregated proms convey | author= Jeffrey Scott Shapiro | newspaper=Sarasota Herald-Tribune (reprinted from Los Angeles Times) | date= May 19, 2003 | accessdate=March 17, 2010}}("Segregated proms, although apparently few, are one of the worst public displays of racism in today's America."){{cite news | url= http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20140091,00.html | title= Black and White Proms | author= Rogers, Patrick | newspaper=People | date= May 19, 2003 | accessdate=March 23, 2010}}(reporting on segregated prom in Johnson County, Georgia, and noting "Though no national figures exist, Johnson is not the only county in the U.S. to host segregated proms.") Since 1987, media sources have reported on segregated proms being held in the U.S. states of Alabama,{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XSAfAAAAIBAJ&pg=6862,5131613 | title= Decades later, humiliated student receives an invitation to reunion | author= Vickii Howell | newspaper=The Tuscaloosa News | date= November 23, 2000 | accessdate=March 23, 2010}}(reporting that location of prom was kept a secret from first black student at Jones Valley High School in Birmingham, Alabama, in the mid-1960s so she could not attend) Arkansas,{{cite news | url= https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73589335.html?dids=73589335:73589335&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+02%2C+1988&author=Barbara+McIntosh&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=The+Class+That+Crossed+the+Great+Divide%3B+In+Arkansas%2C+a+High+School%27s+First+Integrated+Prom&pqatl=google | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121108064221/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73589335.html?dids=73589335:73589335&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+02%2C+1988&author=Barbara+McIntosh&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=The+Class+That+Crossed+the+Great+Divide%3B+In+Arkansas%2C+a+High+School%27s+First+Integrated+Prom&pqatl=google | url-status= dead | archive-date= November 8, 2012 | title= The Class That Crossed the Great Divide; In Arkansas, a High School's First Integrated Prom | author= McIntosh, Barbara | newspaper=The Washington Post | date= May 2, 1988 | accessdate=March 23, 2010}}(reporting on first integrated prom in Forrest City, Arkansas, and noting "This Mississippi River Delta town, like many other Southern communities, had eliminated school-sponsored dances and other social functions when court-ordered integration began in the mid-1960s. For 23 years private, racially segregated dances sponsored by social clubs and individual families had taken the place of a traditional prom in Forrest City.") Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina,{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7hc0AAAAIBAJ&pg=4958,6528670 | title=Two proms: one white, one black | newspaper=Lodi News-Sentinel | date= April 18, 1987 | accessdate=March 23, 2010}} and Texas.{{cite web |url=http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2009/05/segregated-proms/ |title=Segregated Proms | Fuller Youth Institute |accessdate=2012-04-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101122235954/http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2009/05/segregated-proms/ |archive-date=2010-11-22 }}
In two places in Georgia, the "black prom" was open to attendance by all students. Only the "white prom" was racially exclusive.
School alumni at schools which held segregated proms sometimes hold segregated class reunions as well.{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XOkLAAAAIBAJ&pg=6775,3708933 | agency= Associated Press | title=Their prom was segregated ...10 years later class reunion is, too | newspaper=Evening Independent | date= June 30, 1984 | accessdate=March 23, 2010}}
= Outside the Deep South =
Even prior to integration in the South, there have been instances of segregated proms being held in integrated schools in the northern United States. In the late 1920s, for example, separate proms for blacks and whites are recorded as occurring at Froebel High School in Gary, Indiana.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=68G5oQIJBBgC&pg=PA63 | title=Hoosiers: The Fabulous Basketball Life of Indiana| isbn=9781878208439| last1=Hoose| first1=Phillip M.| year=1995| publisher=Guild Press of Indiana}}
Notable cases
- Charleston, Mississippi: In 1997, actor Morgan Freeman offered to fund a racially integrated prom in Charleston, Mississippi, where he lives. The offer was turned down. In 2007, he made the offer again and it was accepted, and the school held its first integrated prom in 2008, profiled in the documentary Prom Night in Mississippi.{{cite news | url= https://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Morgan+Freeman+goes+Prom/2296707/story.html | title= Morgan Freeman goes to the Prom | author= Katherine Monk | newspaper=Ottawa Citizen | date= December 3, 2009 | accessdate=March 17, 2010}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}
- Taylor County, Georgia: In 2002, Taylor County, Georgia made international news for holding its first integrated prom, and again when a group of white students held a separate prom the following year.{{cite news | url= http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86338,00.html | title= Circling the wagons | author= Bill O'Reilly | publisher= Fox News Channel | date= May 8, 2003 | accessdate= March 17, 2010 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110604203422/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86338,00.html | archive-date= June 4, 2011 | url-status= dead | df= mdy-all }} The 2006 film For One Night is based on these events.
- Toombs County, Georgia: In 2004, it was reported that Hispanic students at Toombs County High School had planned their own prom, and that separate white, black, and Hispanic proms would be held. The school, 56% white, 31% black, and 12% Hispanic, had been holding separate white and black proms since 1971.{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IdImAAAAIBAJ&pg=3096,2854416 | title= Georgia county holds racially themed proms | agency= Associated Press | newspaper=Boca Raton News | date= May 11, 2004 | accessdate=March 31, 2010}}{{cite news | url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=N4wvAAAAIBAJ&pg=2566,863598 | title= One town, three proms | author= Jeffry Scott | newspaper=The Gadsden Times | date= May 9, 2004 | accessdate=March 31, 2010}}{{cite news | url= http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1782805&nav=0qq6MGog | title= Hispanic Prom Added at Toombs County High | publisher= WTOC-TV | date= April 13, 2004 | accessdate= March 31, 2010 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160130180019/http://www.wtoc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1782805&nav=0qq6MGog | archive-date= January 30, 2016 | url-status= dead }}
- Montgomery County, Georgia: In 2009, The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph both profiled the racially segregated prom in Montgomery County, Georgia.{{cite news | url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5586617/Segregated-high-school-proms-divide-Georgias-students.html | title= Segregated high school proms divide Georgia's students | author= Leonard Doyle | newspaper=The Daily Telegraph | date= June 21, 2009 | accessdate=March 17, 2010 | location=London}}{{cite news | url= https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/05/24/magazine/dividedproms-audioss/index.html | title= Voices From a Divided Prom | newspaper=The New York Times | date= May 24, 2009 | accessdate=April 5, 2010}} (online audio and slideshow supplementing article)
- Wilcox County, Georgia: In 2013, the New York Times published an article about Wilcox County High School's first integrated prom, which took place that year, and was organized by students.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/us/in-rural-georgia-students-step-up-to-offer-integrated-prom.html | work=The New York Times | first=Robbie | last=Brown | title=In Rural Georgia, Students Step Up to Offer Integrated Prom | date=April 26, 2013}}
See also
- Prom Night in Mississippi, 2009 documentary that follows a group of Charleston, Mississippi high-school students preparing for their first racially integrated prom in town history.
- For One Night, 2006 film based on first integrated prom in Taylor County, Georgia held in 2002.
- Hulond Humphries, former principal in Randolph County, Alabama who threatened to cancel the school prom in the mid-1990s to prevent attendance by interracial couples.
- 2010 Itawamba County School District prom controversy, in which a private prom was organized by a school in order to exclude a lesbian student and her date from attending.
- Racial segregation of churches in the United States