Despite my misgivings, the group came up with a plan that would ensure multiple black candidates to choose from for homecoming queen. The parents looked at me like I was some kind of racist when I suggested that if their goal was to have a black homecoming queen, the best chance would be to have one black girl against 3 or 4 white girls and they were quite smug in their satisfaction when the new process resulted in 3 black nominees and one white nominee.
Long story short, about 65% of the voting students voted for the one white nominee and the three black girls (all terrific kids, by the way) were left to divide the remaining 35%.
After that, it was all down hill. In my senior year, we had "Homecoming Representatives" selected from each homeroom. There was no election process so there were about 8 "Queens" riding the float including our first male Homecoming Queen. No, it wasn't me, but I was instrumental in bringing that about. I promised a buddy a case of beer if he would volunteer to represent our homeroom.
Your high school wasn't in Palm Beach County, FL, by any chance was it?