Georgians Plan Whites-Only Prom Party

[Guest EdwardKnoxII]

Georgians Plan Whites-Only Prom Party

By ELLIOTT MINOR

 

ALBANY, Ga. (AP) - 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.'''

[Guest Plushy Al Logan]

::Takes out Hourglass::

 

When the sands of time run out, the ACLU, will curse this land known as Georgia.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

The black students should have a blacks only prom.

[Guest SP-1]

Cuz we're not all human or anything.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

The black students should have a blacks only prom.

How would that help anything? That's lowering themselves to the level of these Nazis.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

What can you do really. The official prom is still being held, and if people wanna do something stupid that's their problem. Just have fun, and don't worry about the Whites only dance.

[Guest CED Ordonez]

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.

 

As an Asian, I'd truly be screwed if I were in Albany, Georgia on prom night.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

...the hell? First off, I'm confused. Is this a private prom in addition to the school's regular prom, or has the school always had two racially divided regular promos? Second off, is that legal? Third off, where the hell are they going to find a good white DJ?

[Guest Olympic Slam]

...the hell? First off, I'm confused.  Is this a private prom in addition to the school's regular prom, or has the school always had two racially divided regular promos? Second off, is that legal? Third off, where the hell are they going to find a good white DJ?

This is a private get-together so they can include and exclude anyone they want. Apparently the school district got so fed up with everybody's retardness on the topic of seperate proms that they stopped holding school dances altogether. I stand in awe of the stupidity of these stone-age crackers.

[Guest Galactic Gigolo]

You're getting this story pretty late. My history teacher spoke about it three weeks ago. Though I don't think they'd decided whether or not to integrate it this year, though.

 

The ACLU should be all over this fucking school, though. I'm sure they allow flyers to be hung up in school, announce it over the intercom, let students sell tickets in the school, etc. One little fuck up and the ACLU will find a black student to sue the school, as even $.01 of tax money going towards this violates so many laws.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Well if this is a private-party perse, not sponsored by the school, and it is more of a party for friends off campus, then there is nothing the school can do about it, but discourage the obvious RACIST thought process that went into this. I can't believe these children's parents are supporting their children in this. "Problems from interracial dating" Hahaha, well yes, if you are a fucking bigot/racist then there would be a problem I suppose.

 

The school should make sure they take NO PART in this. Do not allow any promotion of this at school, besides I guess the students talking to each other, since that can't be helped.

[Rendclaw 0]

Welcome to the shining glory that is the South, people..... where such gripping, poignant and oh-so-relevant topics such as interracial dating are at the vanguard of such a forward thinking, progressive society.

 

::shuts off his sarcasm mode and spits in the general direction of Georgia::

[Guest goodhelmet]

i drove through georgia once. beautiful country. well, we were on our way to south carolina and were making good time. the nearest gas station was fifteen miles away. i needed to take a piss. i pulled over on the side of the road and relieved myself on georgian soil. it felt good.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Would the general reaction be the same if it were a Black-only prom? I seem to remember instances in the past at high schools/colleges where there were minority-only school-sponsored events (prom/graduation). The defense used at some of these gatherings went along the lines of "It was an empowering move because of graduating despite whitey throwing all kinds of obstacles in our way," but I still found the actions revolting...

 

But with that being said, I found this quote amusing: "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."

 

I can see the problem some white kid would have bring Laquanda home to meet his dad, who happens to be the regional wizard (or whatever their goofy titles are nowadays) of the KKK...

[Guest teke184]

I find the separate prom issue to be bullshit because the dance is only a dance. Considering that the dance only lasts about 2-3 hours and then everyone parties all night elsewhere, someone could throw a white-only after-party by invitation only. It would be their own business because it would be a private citizen holding a party on private property for a select set of individuals, in theory, and not just every white person at the school. I would still think it would be a shitty thing to do to intentionally alienate at least half of their class but they wouldn't have to invite anyone to a private non-school function that they don't want to. The only proviso would be that they couldn't advertise it at the school since it is not a school function.

 

To summarize- Separate proms are bullshit. Private after-parties by invitation only are legal but still a shitty thing to do if the invitations are only sent out to one ethnic group out of a diverse class.

 

 

As for my personal angle on the situation, my high school in the south had problems with the post-graduation activities because the school administration screwed us over... The headmaster booked the post-grad dinner and dance at a country club with a shady racial history then told the class that we could decide what we wanted to do about it, which pissed off every black person in the class and a few whites to the point where no alternative suggestions were taken seriously. (No place the white students wanted to go to was some place the black students felt comfortable at and vice versa. Also, as a sidenote, I'll mention that the racial makeup of my graduating class was about 7% of Asian descent (including India), about 5% black, and about 88% white)

 

We ended up having the dinner and dance at a plantation on the edge of town and at least a few of the black students decided they would come after all. (I personally found the choice of a plantation house to be distasteful considering the earlier controversy but no one else had a problem with it that I ever heard about.) It was by no means an ideal solution but, with the school administration basically throwing us in a minefield, it was the best we could pull off.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Well, my school basically had an all white prom, but that's only because all but maybe 3 students in my graduating class were white.

[Guest Big Poppa Popick]

there are times when being southern makes me ashamed

 

this is one of those times

[Guest Walter Sobzak]

Isn't this pretty much the South-as-usual? The integrated prom is a step in the right direction, even if it is 40-some years late.

 

Unfortunate, but hey, that's Georgia for you...

[Guest Some Guy]

What year is it in Georgia? 1949?

 

This is fucking crazy.

 

Hey Georgia! Come join the rest of us in the 21st century.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Would the general reaction be the same if it were a Black-only prom? I seem to remember instances in the past at high schools/colleges where there were minority-only school-sponsored events (prom/graduation). The defense used at some of these gatherings went along the lines of "It was an empowering move because of graduating despite whitey throwing all kinds of obstacles in our way," but I still found the actions revolting...

Yea, I hate that too. It doesn't matter what race you're against, racism is racism. That's one of the few places I differ from the "liberal ideology" - I don't support affirmative action and never have. It's gotta be an even playing field for "accomplishments" to mean anything.

 

I remember at my high school it was always "Sponsored by La Familia Unida/Black Student Union*"

 

*[fine print]But all cultures are invited to attend.

[Guest Ram]

Race isn't really a problem at my school, but I guess that's because there's 3 black students attending it.

 

Racism is still a problem though, but the NAACP and constant "descrimination" lawsuits aren't helping much either.

[Guest Vyce]

This school is just full of problems.

 

I heard today that they even have separate class presidents - one for the white kids, one for the black kids.

 

Tell me that isn't fucked up.

[Guest NoCalMike]

I thought after 9/11 we were all "in it together" Yah, bullshit. Nothing has changed.

[Guest Plushy Al Logan]

::Takes out Hourglass::

 

When the sands of time run out, the ACLU, will curse this land known as Georgia.

Apparently my hour glass has not run out of sand. I hope it stays that way.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Saw some of these future leaders of America on Fox News yesterday -- personally, I wouldn't mind them having their own prom because I sure as heck wouldn't want this trash at the same social gathering as me...

Edited May 10, 2003 by kkktookmybabyaway

[Guest ant_7000]

Damn, that is ignorant but thats what they want, let it be. If I was going to that school I would be like "Fuck Them" and have a good time at my prom. I wouldn't go places that I feel im not wanted anyway. Let them party in their blissful ignorance.

[Guest NoCalMike]

How can people read this story and then claim Racism is not still a very strong issue? It would be different if it was two or three students trying to rebel, but this was almost the entire senior class.

[Guest The Grand Pubah of 1620]

This is America people and if a group of people want to hold a private party and exclude a group of people then they can do it. Who cares, the blacks should just have their prom and let the whites have theirs. There's no reason for this to be such an issue.

 

And this is an old story by the way.

[Guest Insanityman]

Well, it's not as much a huge issue than one of the most retarded things I've ever heard. I still don't get the reason why anyone would be truly racist anyway, but I find it humorous as one of my friends, who lived in the south for a bit, wondered why the stereotypes were about the South. This is a prime example of why, sure, it's a tad hypocritial to bring in stereotypes, but meh, I'm trying to say that even though they have a right to have seperate gatherings- they shouldn't have too. Forbid the fact we all remember we're humans and color of skin doesn't make us inferior or superior.

[Guest WhenDanSaysJump]

Wait until Teddy Long hears about this.

 

Oh, by the way, FUCK YOU GEORGIA.