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.'"

[Belial]

Could it be that the White students dont want to listen to crap music

Not likely. Most teeny music in the last 100 years in America has been bastardized white versions of black ideas.

[asformeandformyhouse]

separate, private party for whites only

It's private, therefore within their rights but as I tell my children: "Just because you have a right to do a thing, doesn't make it the right thing to do".

[freepy smurf]

It's called freedom of association.

Amen and it's the most essential of all human rights.

[staytrue]

Suppose the entire country decided not to associate with or speak to a freeper with the screen name guillermo. I think all freedoms have certain limits. No freedoms are absolute.

[Khepera]

Morality? Maybe they find the blacks in their area to be ruffians and trouble makers and don't feel safe around them. That may not be it at all but we don't know. We cannot even say they are being stupid because we don't really know thei situation.

[Guillermo]

If they decided to, that's their right.

I do not have a right to be heard (or read).

[Belial]

Maybe they find the blacks in their area to be ruffians and trouble makers and don't feel safe around them.

Or more likely, these kids are descended from inbred hicks who still put on the white robes when they've drunk too much moonshine.

[Khepera]

maybe its not a color difference but a cultural one.

[demosthenes the elder]

I don't see how the exercise of a constitutional right can be "wrong"

Tell me...
Do you consider BET "wrong"?
Do you consider the Black Congressional Congress "wrong"?
Do you consider Jet, Essence, and the many other black-only publications "wrong"?
Do you consider Christian chrches which exclude Muslim Imams from delivering a sermon "wrong"?
Would you consider a restaurant which served nothing but Southern BBQ (by definition: PORK) and thus exclusive of devout Jews and Muslims (and Vegetarians and PETAns) "wrong"?
Do you consider Men's (private) Clubs which exclude women "wrong"?
Do you consider Women's (private) Clubs "wrong"?
Do you consider conservative websites which are actively hostile to dithering Leftists "wrong"?

Freedom of Association is ALWAYS right... even if it IS silly.

[grapeape]

You know maybe I was to quick to answer the first time. We don't know the whole story behind this. We have to realize that as people who are trying to create a fairer based society we are being flanked from some Blacks out there. The school in question could be a victim of blacks engaging in volunteer segregation.

I specifically have an instance of this happening at the University of Houston. The Black Fraternities will get in front of the university student center and Paddle each other. They artificially inflate their numbers to turn it into a huge gathering. Of course the Dean of Students DR. Munson is too smart to play into their hands. He lets them show the world just how stupid they are.

This attitude has to be nipped in the bud before it gets out of control. I for one use to be an adamant non-racists but I have no desire to go out on a limb for them any more. I have seen things like this, and have had too many personal experiences to name, to back the movement anymore. I am tired of being stabbed in the back by these UN types.

[Guillermo]

I agree with you.

I wouldn't have gone to that prom, and I certainly would not allow a child of mine to attend either (I don't have kids).

[grapeape]

Now that would be a funny madTV skit!

[MineralMan]

"I wouldn't have gone to that prom, and I certainly would not allow a child of mine to attend either (I don't have kids)."

These kids have a perfect right, of course, to boycott their school prom and hold their own party on the same night. I'm hoping that the vast majority of the kids at that school decide to attend the school prom and share this event with all their fellow students. Let the others have their little party. Maybe they'll feel foolish when not many show up.

What would be really nice is if the popular kids and the natural leaders at the school, both white and black, made it clear that "they" were going to the official school prom and that anyone who went to this racist prom wasn't cool at all, but a loser.

I'm betting, actually, that's just what happens.

[demosthenes the elder]

I'm aware of that, vis-a-vis the general climate. I was trying to sound agyg's consistency (or lack thereof) to better know with whom I am dealing.

[Dan from Michigan]

Most teeny music in the last 100 years in America has been bastardized white versions of black ideas

"Curtis Lowe was the finest picker to ever play the blues" - Lynyrd Skynyrd.