GA High Schoolers Plan a Whites Only Prom
 

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...parate_proms_2

By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, Ga. - A year after holding their first integrated prom, some students at Taylor County High School have decided to again hold a separate, private party for whites only.



While many whites say they still plan to attend next week's integrated prom, the decision to hold the whites-only prom this Friday saddened senior Gerica McCrary, who helped organize last year's dance.


"I cried," said McCrary, who is black. "The black juniors said, 'Our prom is open to everyone. If you want to come, come.'"


Juniors are in charge of planning the prom each year and last year they decided to have just one dance — the first integrated prom in 31 years in the rural Georgia county 150 miles south of Atlanta.


Until then, parents and students organized separate proms for whites and blacks after school officials stopped sponsoring dances, in part because they wanted to avoid problems arising from interracial dating.


This year, a small number of white juniors decided they wanted a separate prom.


"They influenced the others," said McCrary, who plans to major in biology at Columbus State University. "They didn't vote on anything. They said, 'This is what we're going to do.'"


The school has 439 students, 232 of them black. McCrary and a white friend passed out fliers informing students of all races that they would be welcome at the May 9 prom at nearby Fort Valley State University.


The private prom is Friday night 50 miles away in Columbus.


Erin Posey, a white senior, said the entire junior class joined together in hosting last year's prom, but this year's junior class wasn't as unified.


"I think a lot of seniors were disappointed," she said. "Now we have to choose between two groups of friends."


Posey plans to attend both proms.


"I had some white friends who were not going to the other (inclusive) prom," she said. "I wanted to have time with everybody. I'll have a lot of (black) friends there, too. A lot more of the seniors are going to be at the mixed one."


After school integration, separate proms were common in the rural South, but Taylor County was among the last to cling to the practice.


Glenda Latimore, a 1972 graduate, was in the first class to have separate black and white proms. Now her 16-year-old son, Gerard, is preparing for prom night.


As the black junior class president, her son helped organize the open-to-all prom. The class also has a white president.


"I would have liked to see it together this year," said Latimore, an outfielder on the school's baseball team. "My class would have, too. It just didn't happen this year."





Glenda Latimore said relatives in Philadelphia and New Jersey laugh when they read about Taylor County's prom. She said residents here are "nice and friendly," but they still have a problem with proms.

"It seems like it's something secret," she said. "The white people are afraid to speak up against the separation.

"But I went to a black prom and I had fun," she said. "It didn't kill me, so I tell my son, 'Just go to the prom and have fun. Don't come out hating anyone.'"

This is the saddest thing I have ever heard. What year is it?

:eek:

Maybe I'm sheltered, but I can't believe this is still going on!

wow.......that is really......shady. it's a lot of other things, but shady fits best to me......what kind of backwards dumbasses still do that crap? i hope no one shows up to their lil white trash bash......

Oh my... This only shows that we have a long way to go still....
:eek: :mad: :( reading things like this makes me so sad.

Oh dear lord.

:eek:

wtf?
 

It's being discussed in another thread.

where?

That's sad....

Damn, I guess I wouldn't be invited to either of them....:(

I was thinking the same thing!!!! :o :( :mad: :eek:

I think what also bothers me is that the article wrote that the parents helped organize the separate prom. What kind of message does that send?

:mad::(:rolleyes:

I cannot believe that!! The saddest thing is that parents were the ones that actually helped plan this!!! I would not want to attend!!!

I have never been to Georgia or anywhere close by, but is that area of our country still racist?

I am glad I live in Texas, where everyone is friendly and nondisciminatory

Wow. That's just really sad. When I first saw the artice, a I wondered if it was from a tabloid or something. i couldn't be that lucky, though.

:eek: :rolleyes: :( :mad:

I don't get it. :confused: It's 2003. :eek:

This story appeared on another listserv I belong to, and a poster said that a separate "white prom" took place at her old high school,which is in south Georgia, about 50 miles from where this story's taking place. Apparently, this "white prom" has been taking place since the early 1990s. The original prom was canceled, she said, when the HS was integrated years ago.

She said it was not school-sanctioned, was held at a country club, invitation-only and people who went there had to pay some sort of "initiation fee."

Ugh! No wonder kids today are so mess up!

racism is not something that is strictly confined in southern states. yes, the south is known for the KKK, and slavery, and a lot of bad times.....but i don't think that it is only the south that has had these problems. i don't think you meant to offend with your comment, bucutie, so please don't read this like i am fussing at you....i'm not meaning to. my point here is that racism is something that is taught and learned......just plain ignorance passed down through the years. i lived in southern AL for 14 years....and yeah, i saw my share of racism, but i never saw someone hiding behind a sheet, nor did my high school have a segregated prom. i think there are lil pockets of snobby, racist, IGNORANT ppl everywhere....not just in the south. racism is deeper than white vs black.....it's black vs white, white vs non-white, non-white vs. black.......the more people surround themselves with diversity, the more they will learn that b/c someone is different, it doesn't make them better/worse....just makes them different.

the south gets a bad deal......we get stereotyped like a lot of other americans just b/c a small group makes a bigger impression than the whole..........but we're not all uncle cletus and aunt bobbi jo.....we're not all living in trailors, toothless, barefoot and pregnant............and we're not all racist. there is definitely racism in the south......but there's racism everywhere....and probably even in TX. (TX folk, don't flame....just generalizing....got nuthin but love for yas)
again, not meaning to rant or fuss b/c i honestly don't think you meant to offend........just wanted to go about the long way in answering your question: no, that entire area is not racist, but yes, you will find racism in random places. everywhere.

/southern pride rant
*hopefully i didn't offend, either......don't want to hijack this into a southern/racism thread....jus'sayin

I definitely did not post that aiming to offend anyone, and I am sorry if I did come across that way.

AlphaGamDiva- no offense taken
;)

A sad commentary.

That saddens me extremely. This shows that integration was never really achieved.

If I were there, I would refuse to go to this "white" party. Who knows if I would even be invited? After all, Italians aren't considered white by some.

My kids either...

Prom is about powder blue tuxedos and guilting your girlfriend into sex.

-Rudey
--Leave the race issue for when you get to college and become the intellectual problem solvers that you think you'll be.

Did I miss something, or isn't this 2003?

Christin

At least in the big cities like Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and El Paso, Texas is pretty egalitarian... on the other hand, if you go down to Deep East Texas or the Piney Woods, there still remain some entrenched pockets of unrepentant redneckia, where they still practice the time-honored saying, "(N-word), don't let the sun set on you in Bumf*ckia, Texas." even though the signs disappeared long ago.

Even up to the 60s the town of Greenville, Texas used to have a sign in its downtown area that read "THE BLACKEST LAND - THE WHITEST PEOPLE" Blackest land bacause that area of North and North Central Texas is the blackland prairie, with very rich topsoil.

Recently, the City of Dallas had a conniption fit over the accidental uncovering of a WHITES ONLY sign over a water fountain in some old building. Some want it preserved to remind people of an ugly period in our nation's history, others want the sign completely eradicated.

Depends on which side of the 'boot' your Italian heritage is from. Don't forget the Northern Italians (fair hair and skin) vs. Southern Italians (dark hair and olive skin).

Me, I'm a mix of Noo Yawk 'Black Irish' (Irish with dark hair and a little less fair complected; they're descended from Spaniards or Moors who took up residence in Ireland centuries ago), Spanish (mestizos from Venezuela) and if you scratch even further, a little Hindu (from my maternal grandfather, who was descended from Hindus that immigrated from India via Trinidad to Venezuela). I don't burn... I can get really tanned in the summertime and wind up looking like your average-run-of-the-mill Hindu or Arab until I let loose a stream of Noo Yawk speak. :)

Leave it to south GA. :rolleyes:

My new crush. :o

;)

You obviously feel the same way about south GA that I feel about North Florida. :p

I don't even think I need to comment on the idiocy of this mess.

Well, since most Italian-Americans hail from the South (meaning Naples down to Sicily), I guess many weren't/aren't considered "white," as are a lot of Southern Europeans.

Why, thank you for the compliment, ma'am! :) If ya don't mind older gentlemen! :) :D

Though my Noo Yawk-ese occasionally gets peppered with the occasional Texanism like 'y'all' and 'fixin' to get!'

Yuck.

My sentiments exactly. Have fun. Whatever.

I don't know what else to say about something like that.

:confused:

blah

:( :mad:

boooo