Last year, students at Taylor County High School in Butler,
Georgia, held the first integrated prom in 31 years. Though its
theme, ?Make it Last Forever,? seemed to hold some promise, the
integrated dance didn?t even make it to 2003. The school this
spring returned to the unconstitutional practice of holding
segregated proms, a decision parents made in part because ?some
children who had been educated together since kindergarten [were]
in their final rite of passage as they leave school,? reports Gary
Younge of The Guardian. The proms were organized by
parents and students, as school officials no longer sponsor the
dances, ?partly to avoid [interracial] dating.? This is not an
isolated event in the south?or even the most extreme, Younge notes.
Until a few years ago, Hernando High School in Mississippi ?had
everything in racial duplicate?from black and a white principals to
black and white yearbooks.
?Erin Ferdinand
