A heroic group of Georgia high school students are coming together to organize their school’s first ever racially integrated prom.
During class time, Wilcox County High School doesn’t seem different than most other public schools. All races join together in the classroom to get their education, but when it comes to school dances the picture isn’t quite as diverse.
You see, the Georgia high school still has segregated school dances including homecoming and even prom.
The school’s administrators may find nothing wrong with the segregation, but the students are making their voices heard.
“We’re embarrassed, it’s embarrassing,” a group of students said about the racist policy.
Stephanie Sinnot, Mareshia Rucker, Quanesha Wallace, and Keela Bloodworth are all close friends but they aren’t allowed to go to prom together.
“There’s a white prom and then we have our integrated prom,” said Bloodworth.
If any race other than Caucasian tries to attend the white prom, Bloodworth said they “would probably have the police come out there and escort them off the premises.
That was the case just last year as a biracial student was turned away by police.
It’s been that way for as long as anyone can remember, and it doesn’t stop at prom – homecoming is also segregated.
There are signs that things are moving in the right direction, but progress has been slow and not too promising.
The school elected a black prom queen, but don’t think she is in for any special treatment. Even she is still not allowed to attend the white prom. She will have to wait to attend the integrated prom instead and won’t even get to make a grand entrance with the white prom king.
“I felt like there had to be a change because for me to be a black person and the king to be a white person, I felt like, you know why can’t we come together,” Wallace, the black prom queen, asked.
In addition to not being able to go to the dance together, the prom king and queen weren’t even photographed together in the year book.
Unfortunately, the group of brave students organizing a integrated prom doesn’t mean all the students are excited about it.
CBS continues:
“I actually put up posters for the integrated prom and we’ve had people ripping them down at the school,” Bloodworth said
The group will continue to fight for progress, even though there doesn’t seem to be much motivation to change.
The senior class is raising money to pay for the integrated prom, without the help of school officials. It will be held April 27.
