BY TIM ABRAM
toabram@go.olemiss.edu
De jure segregation (segregation by law) was officially abolished with the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, but de facto segregation (segregation by choice) still exists in pockets of our society.
For example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning.”
However, segregation in the church is not what I would like to discuss today.
I would like to discuss the headline in the Washington Times that reads “Georgia county hosts first racially integrated prom in school history.”
This news headline would be no shocker if it appeared in the late 1960s or 1970s.
Sadly, this headline appears 49 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Technically speaking, the segregated proms were not illegal as they were private events sponsored by the parents. Headlines such as these further confirm the negative perception that people from the outside have on race relations in the South. Although this example is the exception rather than the rule, it speaks to how far the South has to come in addressing race relations.
For example, my parents graduated from high school 20 years ago. Both of them can recall having black prom kings and queens and white prom kings and queens. With that being said, we are not as removed from racial separation as we think we are and we are not as far behind as outsiders would say.
However, the focus of this article is not to condemn the school for prolonged progress, but rather to celebrate the students that came together to fight racial injustice.
According to The Washington Times, “Two black and two white friends banded together this year, though, and started a Facebook campaign, ‘Integrated Prom,’ to fuel support for a single dance.”
The page has garnered over 27,982 followers.
To put that number into perspective, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau, Wilcox County only has a population of 9,298.
The “about section” from the Facebook page reads, “We live in rural south Georgia, where not too many things change. Well, as a group of adamant high school seniors, we want to make a difference in our community. For the first time in the history of our county, we plan to have an integrated prom.”
This is a shining example of the potential change that can emerge from a concerted effort from a group of individuals dedicated to change. In addition, this also speaks to the power of social media to bring forth change.
The year 2013 is not an ideal time for the first integrated prom in school history, however, as the old adage goes, “Better late than never.”
I hope more students in other rural counties throughout the South gather the courage to combat archaic ideas on race held by older members of their communities.
Gandhi once said, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him … We need not wait to see what others do.”
Some of the students at Wilcox County High School understand this concept and their integrated prom is the result. I fully commend them on their valiant efforts.
Way to go, seniors at Wilcox County High School.
Tim Abram is a junior public policy major from Horn Lake. Follow him on Twitter @Tim_Abram.
