A segregated prom refers to the practice of United States high schools, generally located in the Deep South, of holding racially segregated proms for white and black students. The practice spread after these schools were integrated, and persists in a few rural places to the present day. The separate proms have been the subject of frequent (often negative) press coverage, and several films.
Prior to the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Board of Education , most schools in the southern United States were racially segregated. [1] The process of integration of schools was slow, and many schools did not become integrated until the late 1960s and early 1970s. In order to avoid having to hold an integrated prom, many high schools stopped sponsoring any prom, and private segregated proms were organized as a replacement. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Sometimes a concern over interracial dating was cited as the reason for not holding a single prom. [5] Other schools cited liability concerns as the reason for not sponsoring a prom. [7]
In addition to segregated proms, some schools have also elected black and white homecoming kings and queens, class officers, and even awarded separate black and white superlatives such as "Most Likely To Succeed." [3] [6] [8] School sponsored separate events, including separate homecoming queens or superlatives, have been deemed to violate federal law by the United States Department of Justice. [9]
In 1990, The New York Times reported that 10 counties in Georgia were still holding segregated proms. [10] Though the practice has been reported to be on the decline since 1970, occasional press reports seem to show it persists in some rural locations. [11] [12] [13] Since 1987, media sources have reported on segregated proms being held in the U.S. states of Alabama, [7] [14] Arkansas, [2] Georgia, [4] Louisiana, [3] Mississippi, [15] South Carolina, [16] and Texas. [17]
In two places in Georgia, the "black prom" was open to attendance by all students. Only the "white prom" was racially exclusive. [4] [5]
School alumni at schools which held segregated proms sometimes hold segregated class reunions as well. [18]
Even prior to integration in the South, there have been instances of segregated proms being held in integrated schools in the northern United States. In the late 1920s, for example, separate proms for blacks and whites are recorded as occurring at Froebel High School in Gary, Indiana. [19]
Montgomery County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,610. The county seat is Mount Vernon. Montgomery County is part of the Vidalia, GA micropolitan statistical area.
Mount Vernon is a city in, and the county seat of, Montgomery County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,900 at the 2020 census, down from 2,451 in 2010. It is home to Brewton–Parker College.
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Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, and 1976, when the court ruled similarly about private schools.
Facilities and services such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, and transportation have been systematically separated in the United States based on racial categorizations. Segregation was the legally or socially enforced separation of African Americans from whites, as well as the separation of other ethnic minorities from majority and mainstream communities. While mainly referring to the physical separation and provision of separate facilities, it can also refer to other manifestations such as prohibitions against interracial marriage, and the separation of roles within an institution. The U.S. Armed Forces were formally segregated until 1948, as black units were separated from white units but were still typically led by white officers.
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The East Tallahatchie School District (ETSD) is a public school district based in Charleston, Mississippi (USA).
Education in Alabama consists of public and private schools in Alabama, including the University of Alabama, private colleges, and secondary and primary schools.
Prom Night in Mississippi is a 2009 Canadian-American documentary film written and directed by Paul Saltzman. The documentary follows a group of 2008 Charleston High School high school seniors in Charleston, Mississippi as they prepare for their senior prom, the first racially integrated prom in Charleston history.
Peach County High School is a public high school located in Fort Valley, Georgia, United States. The school is part of the Peach County School District, which serves Peach County.
The Montgomery County School District is a public school district in Montgomery County, Georgia, United States, based in Mount Vernon. It serves the communities of Ailey, Alston, Higgston, Mount Vernon, Tarrytown, Uvalda, and Vidalia.
Charleston High School is a public high school in Charleston, Mississippi, United States.
Robert Boyd "Tut" Patterson was an American plantation manager and former college football star who is known for founding the first Citizens' Councils, a white supremacist organization, established in Indianola, Mississippi in 1954, in response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In 1966 he helped found Pillow Academy, near Greenwood.
Central Holmes Christian School (CHCS), previously Central Holmes Academy, is a private non-sectarian Christian school in Lexington, Mississippi. It includes elementary, middle, and high school grades 1-12. The school has a controversial history as a segregation academy.
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School segregation in the United States was the segregation of students in educational facilities based on their race and ethnicity. While not prohibited from having or attending schools, various minorities were barred from most schools that admitted white students. Segregation was enforced legally in the U.S. states, primarily in the Southern United States, although segregation could occur in informal settings or through social expectations and norms. Segregation laws were met with resistance by Civil Rights activists and began to be challenged in 1954 by cases brought before the U.S. Supreme Court. Segregation continued longstanding exclusionary policies in much of the Southern United States after the Civil War. Jim Crow laws codified segregation. These laws were influenced by the history of slavery and discrimination in the US. Secondary schools for African Americans in the South were called training schools instead of high schools in order to appease racist whites and focused on vocational education. School integration in the United States took place at different times in different areas and often met resistance. After the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education, which banned segregated school laws, school segregation took de facto form. School segregation declined rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s as the government became strict on schools' plans to combat segregation more effectively as a result of Green v. County School Board of New Kent County. Voluntary segregation by income appears to have increased since 1990. Racial segregation has either increased or stayed constant since 1990, depending on which definition of segregation is used. In general, definitions based on the amount of interaction between black and white students show increased racial segregation, while definitions based on the proportion of black and white students in different schools show racial segregation remaining approximately constant.
In the United States, school integration is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the Civil Rights Movement school integration became a priority, but since then de facto segregation has again become prevalent.
When Mareshia Rucker was a high school senior in 2013 at Wilcox County High School in Georgia, USA, she led efforts to get her high school to hold a single, racially integrated, senior prom. Previously her high school had only allowed students to attend racially segregated parties.
This is a timeline of the civil rights movement in the United States, a nonviolent mid-20th century freedom movement to gain legal equality and the enforcement of constitutional rights for people of color. The goals of the movement included securing equal protection under the law, ending legally institutionalized racial discrimination, and gaining equal access to public facilities, education reform, fair housing, and the ability to vote.
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