Wilcox County High School students attended the first integrated prom since 1971. For more than 40 years, residents in the town would raise money to hold a private prom … and only invite white residents. Any non-white people in the town and high school attended a separate prom a few weeks later. To protest this town norm and attend prom with whomever they wanted, Wilcox County High School students raised enough money through a Facebook group to sponsor their own student-run prom.
To begin, neither the town nor the school sponsored these segregated prom. The Wilcox County school board did not hold a prom, so private citizens in the county paid for them, The New York Times reported. One citizen said back when he went to high school in the 1970s, there were separate proms for people who liked rock music and another for country music fans. He said he saw no problem in holding dances meant to cater to different tastes and cultures, and this reasoning also stands for his approval of segregated dances.
And this is what is wrong. How, in 2013, more than 60 years after the Supreme Court repealed “separate but equal” institutions, was this still happening? We are utterly gobsmacked that people in this town who attended the all-white dances see nothing wrong with separating people by race. Especially because of “culture differences” each prom “accommodated.” The dances did not forcibly excuse non-white people, but only white citizens were formally invited to attend. Thank goodness for the students who took initiative to fundraise for an integrated prom and become activists for equality in their community.
The first integrated prom in Wilcox County since 1971 is evidence that the younger generation, the kids themselves, have grown fed up with having to separate races outside of school. These students successfully took a stand against the older generation that is completely blind to their racism. We cannot believe a town still held ideals that valued segregation, but we are pleased to see that students could come together and make necessary change in the town’s culture.
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