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POINT #1 - Proms stopped being held in southern high schools during the 1960s and 1970s, when desegregation was in full swing. At that time, high schools stopped throwing the year-end dances out of concern for racial unrest that could rear its ugly head at such an occasion.
This led to the holding of proms outside school jurisdiction, and the parties were hosted by parents and students instead. This move led to the idea of a white prom and a black prom, a tradition that has been going on for those many decades.
POINT #2 - It’s about interracial dating. Interestingly, when I interviewed one of the first crossover teachers at the school, she explained that the tradition actually started in a democratic way, because when the schools integrated in the early '70s, they didn’t want the queen to always be white.
Since 1987, media sources have reported on segregated proms being held in the U.S. states of Alabama, Arkansas,Georgia,Louisiana,Mississippi South Carolina, and Texas
NOTABLE EVENTS
1994 Randolph County, Alabama: Hulond Humphries former principal at Randolph County High School caused a national controversy in 1994 and 1995 after he threatened to cancel the high school's prom due to fears about interracial dating.
1997 Charleston, Mississippi: Morgan Freeman offered to fund a racially integrated prom in Charleston, Mississippi, where he lives. The offer was turned down. In 2007, he made the offer again and it was accepted, and the school held its first integrated prom in 2008, profiled in the documentary Prom Night in Mississippi.
2002 Taylor County, Georgia: Taylor County, Georgia made international news for holding its first integrated prom, and again when a group of white students proceeded to hold a separate prom the following year.. The 2006 film For One Night is based on these events.
2004 Toombs County, Georgia: It was reported that Hispanic students at Toombs County High School had planned their own prom, and that separate white, black, and Hispanic proms would be held. The school, 56% white, 31% black, and 12% Hispanic, had been holding separate white and black proms since 1971
2009 Montgomery County, Georgia:, The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph both profiled the racially segregated prom in Montgomery Count
2010 Itawamba County, Mississippi, A prom controversy private prom was organized by a school in order to exclude a lesbian student and her date from attending.
2013 Wilcox County, Georgia: The New York Times published an article about Wilcox County High School's first integrated prom, which took place that year, and was organized by students
2013 Mississippi lawmakers officially ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which banned slavery in 1865.
2016 A federal judge orders a Mississippi school district to desegregate its schools.
"Merging black and white schools was a common desegregation method in the 1960s and 1970s, and the opinion is a reminder that desegregation lawsuits never ended in some places. As recently as 2014, the U.S. Justice Department was still a party to 43 such suits in Mississippi alone"
Principal cancelled prom November 23, 2015
Principal cancelled prom claiming the cost to parents and students is too much to bare and is a risk due to drug and alcohol abuse
Headmaster Chris Beirne of the Beaulieu School for girls had made the decision this year to eliminate the school’s end of year prom. The cost of prom to parents and pupils was just too much to bare. He had also said that it was ‘no longer reasonable’ for staff to be expected to supervise the school event, ‘in an era of increasing safeguarding risk to students and the staff themselves.’
According the the Jersey Evening Post, Headmaster Bernie was also quoted as saying, “The price of pre- and after-prom parties and the significant focus and distraction this event causes in the academic year, not to mention the growing expense and luxury foisted on parents in the preparation for this event.”
Proms are big business. Over 1 billion dollars is spent in the US alone on prom dresses, tux rentals, tanning, flowers, limos, and disposable themed cardboard cutouts. There is so much emphasis on keeping up with the Jones’ to outdo each other with the amount of money spent on these items. But that isn’t the goal of prom. Prom is an opportunity for students to celebrate their school spirit and enjoy a special night just for them with friends and classmates.
PROM THEMES! This past year, The Great Gatsby was where it was at. The decadence of Hollywood is so popular for proms. It’s the student’s opportunity to spoil themselves and feel like royalty for the night. But this theme, and many more can be satisfied when it comes to the individual choices in apparel. By saving on disposable decor that will inevitably find it’s way to the landfill 8 hours after it’s set up, you can pass the savings on to the students for other things like limo services, coach buses, and formal wear.
Last but not least, and certainly the most important… Your Entertainment matters the most. Your entertainment is what makes or breaks a prom. Choose the right one and you’ll be a hero to your students and administration. Choose the wrong one and the students will spend the night on their phones or leaving early or at the very worst, succumbing to the clutches of alcohol and substance abuse.
It is completely understandable that the administration in this particular case wants to protect his students from the dangers of substance abuse but by the same token, if you give the students an opportunity to enjoy themselves and put the focus on what is important to THEM instead of what you THINK they want, by giving them an environment that will have them dancing long and hard, singing at the top of their lungs, clapping their hands in the air all night long, they won’t want to turn to drugs & alcohol. They’ll be having too much fun to want to leave.
Prom Excesses, Indignities and Flashbacks “The wasteful flaunting of wealth undermined the dignity of the young people.”
Kellenberg Memorial High School sponsored its last senior prom in the spring of 2005.
The prom — that annual rite of American teenagers — is annually analyzed, lionized, bemoaned and mocked. Do the complaints about the bacchanalia (a Roman festival of Bacchus celebrated with dancing, song, and revelry) — the limos, the thousand-dollar dresses, the catered feasts, the beer binges — strike a stronger chord this year, because of the hunkered-down economy?
While some schools have banned proms, others have sought to curtail their excesses. We asked a principal, a memoirist, a comedian, a counselor and a columnist to discuss the pros and cons of proms, past and present
Our letter to the parents and students was prophetic given our nation’s current economic situation. Our letter stated the following:
“Aside from the bacchanalian aspects of the prom — alcohol/sex/drugs — there is a root problem for all this and it is affluence. Affluence changes people. Too much money is not good for the soul. Our young people have too much money. … The prom has become the occasion of conspicuous consumption — from dress, to limousines, to entertainment.”
Summary:Prom Night in Mississippi is at once heart-breaking and inspiring. Harsh lessons of division and
racial intolerance infect the lives of Charleston High’s students. As one child says in the film, “Some people don’t want to go [to the integrated prom] because they think that it’s not right. Because some people believe in, like, white and black separate.” But the film also allows us to witness powerful moments when young people resist the racist notions that surround them. We meet Cescily and Chasidy, two teenage girls who forge a deep friendship across the color line; and Jeremy and Heather, an interracial couple who declare their love for one another, despite the disapproval of their community.
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