Georgians Plan Whites-Only Prom Party

Associated Press ^ | 05-01-03

[Brian S]

ALBANY, Ga. May 1 — 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.'"

[ZULU]

The color of a person's skin has become irrelevant. Its their mind (political views) that count.


I'd take Condi Rice to Hilary Clinton, or Alan Keyes to Chuckie Schumer any day.

[KantianBurke]

dude if you have to ask, my answering your question would be pointless

[RooRoobird14]

Would this be news if the black students decided on their own they wanted a blacks only prom? Don't think so.

This is the end result of the PC fascists' constant obsession with making everything a matter of race, forcing reverse discrimination down everyone's throats whenever possible. What a shame.

[Grando Calrissian]

Will Pat Buchanan be an honorary chaperone?

[Hildy]

Really? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[MineralMan]

"No offense meant here, but how old are you?"

Way too old to suit me.

[stainlessbanner]

Colin and Condi have my vote, too.

[demosthenes the elder]

I will go as far as the following:
For any private club, team, event, or gathering to exclude membership or participation on the basis of any innocuous biological trait or feature which in itself does not interfere with the performance of necessary tasks integral to the nature of that private organization is certainly questionable, probably silly, and in the case of the matter under discussion arguably quite stupid and ugly.

I will not say that it is morally wrong.

The Constitution is my only Bible, and I have unending contempt for enforced diversity.
I make my own choices regarding with whom I shall associate, and allow others to make their own choices in a like manner without daring to usurp God's place as judge of morality.

So, in short, I agree with you to a point, but no further.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Here are my three basic questions:

Do you object to interracial dating?

Do you think being a caucasian makes you superior to blacks?

Could you see yourself voting for Condoleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell or Colin Powell to be President of the United States?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I will not say that it is morally wrong.

Was government enforced segregation and denial of voting and economic rights morally wrong?

[johnb838]

The point is that all this PC happy crappy aside, the same old attitudes and prejudices are right there in the kids because they're too smart to believe much of anything they are taught in school cuz they know it was written with a PC pen. What they know is what they see on the TV, in the hallway, and on the street.

PC is like putting lipstick on a corpse.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

The corpse is the racist parents that pass on the ideas to their kids, perpetuating the stupidity.

[demosthenes the elder]

actually, I am a damnyankee or carpetbagger.
I made use of the definition I have been repeatedly given: When a Southerner says "barbecue" he means pork.
Perhaps if I narrowed the menu even further by stating "only seved Southern BY BROOKS COUNTY GA DEFINITION barbecue" this quibble would evaporate?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

My comparison is very valid, because "freedom of association" was used to justify all those things in the past.

[demosthenes the elder]

it was unconstitutional. that suffices.

[ZULU]

Condi is pro Second Amendment. Powell waffles on that.

But he still beats Schumer and those other freaks in the DemocRATic sideshow.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

But was it objectively immoral?

[k2blader]

Hm, I'd never vote for Powell for Prez. Condi, maybe...

BTW, welcome to FR. All of us here have been flamed in some way or another. But in the end, each post stands on its own merit or falls from lack thereof.

[demosthenes the elder]

no. "freedom of association" was warped and twisted by pond-scum to bolster it.
Such laws were in fact quite contradictory to freedom of association.