Should Segregated Proms Still Even Be Considered in 2013?

This is a topic that is dear to the hearts of many in the Cascade area and greater SW Atlanta area, because so many of our older residents actually fought against segregation and for civil rights.

When four girls from Wilcox County High School in Rochelle, Ga., decided it was time for them to be able to attend prom together, Melvin Everson, Republican executive director of the Georgia Commission of Equal Opportunity, offered his support. Up until this year, there has always been two proms for the students from Wilcox County High — one for white students and one for non-white students. According to Snellville Patch, the four students, two white and two black, were not happy that they would not have been able to attend prom together.

"We live in rural south Georgia, where not too many things change," the girls wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to an integrated prom. "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." 

The dances are sponsored by parents, not the school board, and this year, the school held its first integrated homecoming dance. But there was still no integrated prom planned for the students.

That has now changed. After getting sponsorships from all over the country on the Facebook page, there will now be an integrated prom. Snellville Patch reported that half the school has elected to attend instead of the "white only" prom. Everson, a Wilcox County native, has offered to fund a prom and he has the support of a bipartisan group of legislators in the Georgia General Assembly.

According to the Integrated Prom Facebook page, the money raised by the girls for the prom will be used to support two families in the community in need. The Georgia NAACP has also been involved in helping the students and have requested the school host an integrated, official prom in 2014. According to Yhe Huffington Post, the school is considering it. 

What do you think? Should students be allowed to have segregated proms if they want to? Or is it time to just have one prom, sponsored by the school, like everybody else?