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A ROSE GROWS IN THE EBB AND FLOW OF RACE RELATIONS

It’s Georgia. So does that say it all? I don’t think so.

That’s why Gerica McCrary cried. It hurt. It would hurt anyone who was idealistic enough to think that a new day had come, a new page had been turned, that a progressive generation had got hold of a level-headed concept so as never again to return to what was. That’s why Gerica cried.

The page turned forward and then slipped back. A year ago, she helped organize an integrated school prom.

It worked. Many of the students and adults who attended woke up the next morning thinking that the next spring would yield the same — a fellowship of blacks and whites, something unheard of “in the olden days.”

But it appears as if the olden days have caught up with Albany, Georgia. No integrated dance this year. Yet not everybody’s going with the segregated plan of a white’s only prom. There are those who have planned an alternative prom — integrated. Confusing? Yes. Part of the ebb and flow of race relations.

The integrated prom plans does help ease the hurt somewhat. It always does, that is, when there are the hold-outs for what makes sense in human relations. Yet Taylor County High has its split this spring season — those for an all-white prom and those who say that it’s more fun and more civil to go to an integrated social event.

Every year the juniors plan the prom detail. In 2002, they had one dance — the first integrated prom in the last 31 years. Tucked away in the countryside, 150 miles south of Atlanta, it went off quite well. No incidents except for a lot of good times had by all.

But as human nature often teaches us, race relations have their own seasons. Nothing is predictable — in cement. Each generation and each dimension of each generation makes up its own mind, decides for itself. So this spring, the junior class did not have the united front for an integrated prom.

Now the youths have to decide between, not only events, but friends. With 439 students, 232 being black, the confusion is a bit of a bump in the social relations road.

Nevertheless, out of such confusion often comes the blooming of a rose. This situation does have its rose. A black student is distributing invitation fliers to any who will take them. The papers welcome both blacks and whites to a May 9 prom at nearby Fort Valley State University. For those who can make the 50 mile drive to Columbus, it should be one very nice evening.

Maybe some sophomores will attend, get the happy bug, and so plan as juniors next year to ditto the pleasant, open heart of a dance that is totally color blind. Nothing like it.