Ga. School Plans Its First Non-Segregated Prom
| AR Articles on Segregation |
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| Who Still Believes in Integration? (Sep. 1993) |
| Having it Both Ways (May 1997) |
| “A Choice to Be Whole” (July 2001) |
| Diversity Does Not Equal Integration (May 2001) |
| Segregation to the Rescue (June 2000) |
| Schools Resegregate (July 1999) |
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Breaking from tradition, high school students in this small town are getting together for this year’s prom.
Prom night at Turner County High has long been an evening of de facto segregation: white students organized their own unofficial prom, while black students did the same.
This year’s group of seniors didn’t want that legacy. When the four senior class officers—two whites and two blacks—met with Principal Chad Stone at the start of the school year, they had more on their minds than changes to the school’s dress code.
They wanted an all-school prom. They wanted everyone invited.
On April 21, they’ll have their wish. The town’s auditorium will be transformed into a tropical scene, and for the first time, every junior and senior, regardless of race, will be invited.
The prom’s theme: Breakaway.
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Students say the self-segregation that splits social circles in school mirrors the attitude of this town of 4,000 people. So getting every student to break from the past could be a difficult task.
With prom night about two weeks away, only half of the 160 upper-class students have bought tickets. And there’s talk around the school that some white students might throw a competing party at a nearby lake.
“Everyone is saying they’re not going to the school prom,” said Steven Tuller, a 17-year-old white junior who doesn’t plan to attend either event because he wants to wait until he’s a senior. “They’re saying it’s tradition.”
Yet Turner County High already has defied tradition this year. The school abandoned its practice of naming separate white and black homecoming queens. Instead, a mixed-race student was named the county’s first solo homecoming queen.
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(Posted on April 10, 2007)