ASHBURN, Georgia (CNN) -- Students of Turner County High School started what they hope will become a new tradition: Black and white students attended the prom together for the first time on Saturday.
In previous years, parents had organized private, segregated dances for students of the school in rural Ashburn, Georgia, 160 miles south of Atlanta.
"Whites always come to this one and blacks always go to this one," said Lacey Adkinson, a 14-year-old freshman at the school of 455 students -- 55 percent black, 43 percent white.
"It's always been a tradition since my daddy was in school to have the segregated ones, and this year we're finally getting to try something new," she said.
Adkinson's sister, Mindy Bryan, attended a segregated prom in 2001.
"There was not anybody that I can remember that was black," she said. "The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It's nothing racial at all."
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I know this is a CNN article, but...this is for real, right? This isn't a joke? Wow...I can't believe I live in this state. I mean, it's great they're finally making progress I guess, but...wow...
And here I thought the city I live in was conservative.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I'm not sure if the headline should have read that, or "Georgia: Getting It Right, 40 Years Later," or "Desegregation: Better Late Than Never."
That's bizarre.
When I first saw the thread title, my thought was "why would girls and guys have a separate prom? What'd be the point?"
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Oye Vey... and here I thought we'd gotten beyond racial [insert your favorite appropriate curse here]. Gimme a fracking break...
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Jeepers. That seems like such a foreign concept to me... I can't imagine having a segregated prom, or a segregated anything for that matter.
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2004
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(Honestly, the mind boggles. Why didn't they just start planning one prom and one prom only long ago?)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Taylor County High School students were supposed to attend a prom filled with memory-making moments of the classmates they walk the halls with daily, the classmates they cheer with during sporting events, the classmates they sit with in class. That didn't happen.
Instead, the week prior to the planned prom date, a small group of students decided to hold their prom the "traditional" way, with music, dancing and food -- and without their African-American classmates.
I wonder how many people attended the segregated prom.
quote:Luckily, a more inclusive prom was held a week later for the Georgia students. Some who attended the whites-only prom also attended the second event.
Was the integrated prom better attended?
Did the African-American students have a blacks-only prom at the same time that the whites-only prom was occurring? What did the African American students think of this?
I'd like to hear their voices too.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Human: Hell, isn't a system like that illegal? I thought segregation was made illegal in the 60's.
The 'proms' are held by the parents, therefor private parties and they can invite or not invite whomever they like.
This isn't the first time I've heard about these. They still do segregated proms where my extended family lives in Alabama/Florida panhandle. I've talked to people of both races and they all prefer it seperate. Each group gets to listen to the music they want to and eath the food they want to and hang out with their friends and not worry about anything bad happening because of a few violent people.
I'm not saying it isn't racial or racist (these are different, right?), just that most of the people in that particular school in Alabama prefer it that way: incredibly racist.
It's like when I visited recently. I wanted to go to a bar and play pool, but the only one open was "on the other side of the tracks." My uncle and grandmother insisted I didn't go and I said I didn't give a crap what race the people were. They informed me that the people in the bar sure a heck cared what race I am and I absolutely was not allowed to go.
It's very very sad, but apparently accepted on both sides. (in the particular anecdotal instance I am referring to)
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:I can't imagine having a segregated prom, or a segregated anything for that matter.
Do you just mean segregated by race? Segregation of other types occurs all the time - school functions are segregated by grade, sporting events are segregated by income level, graduation ceremonies are segregated by major, bathrooms are segregated by gender, and so on. The question is: What sorts of segregation are okay and what sorts are not? And why do we allow some?
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
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