Two races, one prom -- after three decades
By BILL OSINSKI Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
BUTLER -- They've been going to school together since kindergarten; now, as they finish high school, they will have a prom together, too.
Bill Osinski / AJC For the first time since desegregation, Taylor County High School will have an integrated prom. Sponsor Denise Smith examines decorations with (from left) Darcel Loyd, Quantanya Hollis, Gerica McCrary and Dedrick Brown.
After three decades of dual proms segregated by skin color, the juniors and seniors at the 420-student Taylor County High School have pasted that tradition into somebody else's scrapbook. When the unified prom starts up on May 3, Taylor County will become one of the last places in Georgia to drop this practice.
"Everybody finally decided to grow up," said Gerica McCrary, one of the student leaders in the effort to unify the prom.
Amber Williams, McCrary's white counterpart, said the student prom planners questioned the thinking behind the practice that had been part of school-year-ending celebrations ever since the county schools were integrated in the early 1970s.
"Why is it that we can't dance with each other?" she said the students started wondering.
Colby Smith, a member of the student planning committee, said the students decided that segregated proms just didn't make sense in 2002.
"We go to school together; we should do our prom together," she said.
The theme for the prom -- "Make It Last Forever" -- is an indication, the students said, that they want the spirit of their prom to go on long after the music dies.
At least one other place in Georgia, Johnson County, still holds dual proms. In the mid-1990s, there were public protests in Wrightsville against the segregated proms, among other issues, but privately sponsored, segregated proms are still annual rituals there.
As is the case in most other public high schools, proms are not an official school function in Taylor County. Student committees with adult sponsors typically plan the events.
So, the momentum for ending the segregated proms had to come from the kids.
"Nobody pushed them into this," said Steve Smith, one of the prom sponsors and an algebra teacher at the school. "This class [of juniors] is a very special group," he said.
Defying a long-standing racial tradition took courage on the students' parts, said Denise Smith, Steve Smith's wife and a prom sponsor.
"We're real proud of them," she said. "I think they're very brave."
In December, members of separate prom planning committees put their heads together.
"Everybody thought it was just kind of crazy," said Darcel Loyd, a planning committee member.
"To me, it was embarrassing," said Quantanya Hollis, a prom committee member. They put the prom unification proposal to a vote of the school's 94 seniors and 95 juniors, and it carried by better than 2 to 1.
At first, some resisted in the school that is 55 percent black and 45 percent white.
"A lot of people got mad at me," Williams said, adding that she received a few anonymous phone threats.
Once the students on the two planning committees started working together, the opposition seemed to die out, she said.
Amy Hardman, a special education teacher and a prom sponsor, said the students' focus is on the important things -- dates, dresses and tuxes.
"That's all they should be worried about, what they're going to wear," she said.
In rural Taylor County (population 8,800), prom night and the attending preparations have some logistical challenges.
Some of the young women travel as far as Atlanta to shop for dresses. The young men go to Warner Robins to rent their tuxes. And on prom night, they all have to travel to a Columbus hotel for the gala event.
The unification already has produced some practical benefits. By pooling their financial resources, the prom planners have been able to afford things like better favors and better food.
Also, McCrary said, prom-related businesses, such as caterers and photographers, have been more interested in working with the larger group.
"We've also learned a lot about each other," McCrary said.
The joint committee incorporated some traditions of the separate proms into the unified event, such as the white students' tradition of awarding gag gifts to the seniors, and the black students' traditions of having more food at the dance and staying together as a group rather than heading out to smaller parties.
But as far as personal relationships go, those were already well established within this group of students.
The county has only one public elementary school and one middle school, so many of the students have attended school together since kindergarten and had formed strong friendships across color lines, they said.
"Our class is really close," said Chaely Lawrence, a junior. "This prom is cool; we're going to show it's all right to have fun together."
The decision by this year's class is not binding on next year's, said Alvin Daniel, a junior. But if the prom is as successful as he thinks it will be, the upcoming classes should keep the new tradition going, he said.
Whatever happens at next year's prom, junior Artishia Turner said she sees larger implications than just a one-night party.
"It's our first prom together," she said. "We want to take our theme out into the world with us. We're going to try to live it."
© 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution