Georgia high school hopes to hold integrated prom

[huzzie59 75]

Rev. Al and Rev. Jackson don't want to deal with this?

"Actions (segregation) speaks louder than words (Imus)!!!

Georgia high school hopes to hold integrated prom

Previous efforts haven't been successful

The Associated Press

Published on: 04/10/07

ASHBURN — Breaking from tradition, high school students in this small town are getting together for this year's prom.

Prom night at Turner County High has long been an evening of de facto segregation: white students organized their own unofficial prom, while black students did the same.

This year's group of seniors didn't want that legacy. When the four senior class officers — two whites and two blacks — met with Principal Chad Stone at the start of the school year, they had more on their minds than changes to the school's dress code.

They wanted an all-school prom. They wanted everyone invited.

On April 21, they'll have their wish. The town's auditorium will be transformed into a tropical scene, and for the first time, every junior and senior, regardless of race, will be invited.

The prom's theme: Breakaway.

"Everybody says that's just how it's always been. It's just the way of this very small town," said James Hall, a 17-year-old black student who is the senior class president.

"But it's time for a change."

There are excited announcements of the upcoming dance plastered all over the school, where about 55 percent of students are black and most of the rest are white.

A makeshift countdown to the prom is displayed as a cardboard cutout on a main hallway. Student council members canvass the hallways, asking students to buy a $25 ticket and be a part of history. In the cafeteria, images of palm trees and waterfalls brighten up the sterile walls. "The First Ever!" a poster exclaims. "Got your haircut?"

Students say the self-segregation that splits social circles in school mirrors the attitude of this town of 4,000 people. So getting every student to break from the past could be a difficult task.

With prom night about two weeks away, only half of the 160 upper-class students have bought tickets. And there's talk around the school that some white students might throw a competing party at a nearby lake.

"Everyone is saying they're not going to the school prom," said Steven Tuller, a 17-year-old white junior who doesn't plan to attend either event because he wants to wait until he's a senior. "They're saying it's tradition."

Yet Turner County High already has defied tradition this year. The school abandoned its practice of naming separate white and black homecoming queens. Instead, a mixed-race student was named the county's first solo homecoming queen.

Some alumni welcome change at Turner County High.

"People still think of how life was 20, 30 years ago," said Keith Massey, a 1990 graduate who now runs the popular Keith-A-Que restaurant in town, about 75 miles south of Macon. "And life's got to move on."

Massey recalls an attempt to integrate one of the prom parties when he was in school, but few whites showed up. Attempts to organize a school-wide prom in recent years failed because of a lack of student support.

Stone, serving his first year as the school's principal, has been enthusiastic about an integrated prom. He's funneling $5,000 of his meager discretionary fund to hire a DJ and buy decorations, and he's persuaded a photographer to set up shop at the civic center to snap photos of the couples before the dance.

"This senior class is a close-knit group from top to bottom, and they want to do what's right," said Stone, who is white. "They wanted a full school prom. And I told them if they would do it, I'd do them right."

Edited April 10, 2007 by huzzie59

[Guest]

it's 2007! what's wrong w/ these damn southerners??

[HCFRFF 0]

Why do we have to be damn southreners?????? I mean come on give me a break...really!!

[Remember585 815]

Why do we have to be damn southreners??????  I mean come on give me a break...really!!

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So......are you going to the prom ya hick?!

[Guest]

Is Imus invited?

[210 91]

it's 2007!  what's wrong w/ these damn southerners??

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Stupid comment.

Edited April 11, 2007 by 210

[Guest]

its not personal, it was acutally meant in a sad-jokin manner.

i mean integration happened half a century ago!!! so, yes welcome to 2007...

and it is sad...racism is the worst feeling one human can have to another! and you can F'ing qoute me on that!!

[Guest WolfEMT]

Rev. Al and Rev. Jackson don't want to deal with this?

That's because they're both Black when they want to be. Jay-Z can write a song on his latest CD (I think it's track #13) that uses the N-word in excess of 15 to 20 times and 50-Cent can call every single female on this Earth a "ho," but the two "Reverands" won't say anything because they know that it's a battle that won't garner them as much press time. Imus said something really stupid, but they are making it out to be way more than what it is. It wasn't entirely racist (I mean, he could have used the N-word, perhaps as freely Jay-Z does) and it was as equally mysogynistic as 50's songs. However, both sides are missing the issue and they are detracting from the problem. The problem is that it is the 21st century and there is a high school that still has segregated proms, despite the fact that the fight to end segregation in the educational system was won over a generation ago.

For each time "Reverand" Al gets up on his bully pulpet to bash Imus, he sends a message that people like the students at this Georgia high school don't matter if they won't get his face on the television or picture in the paper. While he and the other "Champions of the Cause" were standing on the steps to the Queens County Criminal Courthouse declaring "No Justice, No Peace" in the wake of a shooting that he claimed was all about race relations in the City, eight Black children died in a horrible fire. In the days after, he did nothing to honor their memories and did nothing to help their families. Where was the Justice and where was the Peace for them? Where were the public displays of mourning? Where were the rallies for their memory?

[210 91]

its not personal, it was acutally meant in a sad-jokin manner. 

i mean integration happened half a century ago!!!  so, yes welcome to 2007...

and it is sad...racism is the worst feeling one human can have to another!  and you can F'ing qoute me on that!!

←

Understand, not personal and for the record, I'm born and raised in Westchester. Generalizing southerners in a negative way is no different then generalizing African Americans in a negative way. Should integration at a school activity be an issue? Of course not.

[210 91]

That's because they're both Black when they want to be. Jay-Z can write a song on his latest CD (I think it's track #13) that uses the N-word in excess of 15 to 20 times and 50-Cent can call every single female on this Earth a "ho," but the two "Reverands" won't say anything because they know that it's a battle that won't garner them as much press time. Imus said something really stupid, but they are making it out to be way more than what it is. It wasn't entirely racist (I mean, he could have used the N-word, perhaps as freely Jay-Z does) and it was as equally mysogynistic as 50's songs. However, both sides are missing the issue and they are detracting from the problem. The problem is that it is the 21st century and there is a high school that still has segregated proms, despite the fact that the fight to end segregation in the educational system was won over a generation ago.

For each time "Reverand" Al gets up on his bully pulpet to bash Imus, he sends a message that people like the students at this Georgia high school don't matter if they won't get his face on the television or picture in the paper. While he and the other "Champions of the Cause" were standing on the steps to the Queens County Criminal Courthouse declaring "No Justice, No Peace" in the wake of a shooting that he claimed was all about race relations in the City, eight Black children died in a horrible fire. In the days after, he did nothing to honor their memories and did nothing to help their families. Where was the Justice and where was the Peace for them? Where were the public displays of mourning? Where were the rallies for their memory?

←

Great post. Thank You.

[JetPhoto 626]

Are "They" allowed to cross the tracks yet on to our side?

[Guest]

hey WolfEMT...great points. especially qouting Reverand.

and i appologize, i should have said "those people" instead of "those southerners." and no im not a 'yankee' that thinks all southerners are racist, that would be just as prejudice!

[eckyphats 0]

Sometime I really want to move to another country!! everybody is trying to blame everyone one else for something!! Oh I just think its real funny that If you go file a complaint form out at the Bridgeport PD, it also gives you info about contacting the NAACP, thats what I heard. Jackson Just fights issues that will put him in the spot light, he does not give a crap, he just wanted the press and attention

[COMMANDCHIEF 4]

This is news on here. why?