Toombs County High School Has 3 Racially Themed Proms

[CrimsonTide4]

Georgians Plan Whites-Only Prom Party
Thu May 1, 2:21 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


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.'"

[DeltaGirl8303]

You have got to be kidding me. That is so unfortunate that this type of ignorance is still so prevalent.

[12dn94dst]

I'm not surprised. In the rural GA town where my Mom is from, the black folks still live on one side of the tracks & the white folks on the other, and that's how it has been for years. I can remember cousins in that town, who are not much older or younger than me, voting for separate homecoming courts for their high school. There were spearate cheerleading squads too.

[jll79]

I am really shaking my head right now. What kind of stupidness (excuse the uknown words) is going on in this world. I guess it's the big city person that I am where everyone is with everyone and there is really no thin or thick line to show that. I'm not saying that we are holding hands together and singing "America the Beautiful", but come on...ignorance is not key.

[kiml122]

I remember when I read about this last year, and I was really amazed that this still existed somewhere. I know that no, everyone doesn't all get along, and sometimes I really have to step back and ask myself is this the 21 century, but damn........still seperate proms...WTH.

[ChaosDST]

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.



Why are they pretending as if this is JUST about a prom? People are "nice and friendly?" Whooptyfreakindo!!!! Even Klansmen can wave and smile at you.

AmeriKKKa needs to get its head out of its ass and admit that this society is still racially segregated.

[Steeltrap]

Last night, at my gym in 1.8% Land, I happened to catch Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. O'Reilly blasted the prom decision, but there was something that I found disturbing -- he read a letter from a viewer that compared it to black beauty pageants, sororities and fraternities.

I wasn't pleased with the writer's analogy. BTW, O'Reilly also said something like a black beauty pageant was stupid but less offensive to him than the prom party.


IMO, there's a difference between private organizations that are funded with private $$$, such as NPHC groups, than things such as the Georgia party, which essentially was school-sanctioned (meaning that taxpayer $$$ was involved.)

[AKA2D '91]

Around these parts, a local parish's students will have the FIRST INTEGRATED Prom THIS YEAR!

One sited that the committees would not be able to choose what foods to prepare or what music to play. WTF?

The old heads (black and white) don't see anything wrong with separate proms.

[brickhouse492]

I think this prom situation signifies the growing concern of resegregation in America. According to a report by Harvard students Gary Orfield and John Yun, American schools are resegregating. The report shows that all racial groups (except whites) experience considerable diversity in their schools but whites are remaining in overwhelmingly white schools even in regions with very large non-white enrollments. This concerns me because predominately black urban schools receive fewer computers and other fundings. Also, the real world is diverse. I feel it a definate advantage that I was exposed to many different cultures and classes at a young age. I learned the difference between black and white middle class for example.

I found the comments of the prom planners to be a cop out (a diverse menu/musical selection was an easy solution). Deeper issues of racism, stereotyping, separatism, etc. come in to play here. It's disheartening.

[ZTAMiami]

I saw O'Reilly last night and he had set up a poll on foxnews.com which was hacked into by a Neo-nazi group so the results are now invalid!

[CrimsonTide4]

Toombs County holds racially themed proms

Associated Press


LYONS - A high school in south Georgia held three different proms - one each for whites, blacks and Hispanics.

The proms for seniors and juniors were private parties, but some students attended more than one of the events, said Ralph Hardy, principal for Toombs County High School.

Students in Toombs County, about 160 miles southeast of Atlanta, have had segregated black and white proms since schools were integrated in 1971, said school board member Needum Rogers.

This year, a group of Hispanic students added their own prom, which was held Saturday - the day after the white students' event. Three weeks before that, black students held their prom.

Yuri Flores said she started pushing for a Hispanic prom after she tried to buy tickets for the white prom. A girl with the prom committee wanted to know if her date was white, black or Hispanic.

Her friend, a white student named Jennifer Hart, also was asked the same question.

"She told me that it was a white prom - not a Mexican prom, not a black prom," Hart told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It made me feel mad. That's not right. I wanted to put my fist in her face."

Read the rest HERE

[Honeykiss1974]

Good grief - what's next ?

[Cali_Keisha]

That is some stright up bull sh!t! That just don't make no sense at all. When are people going to grow up and realize you can't die or catch anything from dancing or being in a room with black folks. I just don't see the point in all of this. I feel sorry for the black student because they are the ones that are being forced to feel inferior. And who and where are the dumb a$$ parent that are supporting this?