According to the Telegraph, the students themselves seemed divided about the prom. One particularly ass-backwards white student said that a Prom for everybody basically wouldn't work because of "cultural reasons", namely that the students couldn't agree on music or themes. Excuse me, but I went to high school, too and students are not always going to agree on the musical selections and usually that has absolutely nothing to do with race. HELLO?
The Montgomery County High School seems to be stuck in some kind of strange 60's time warp as well. I kept expecting Marty McFly from "Back to Future" to be quoted in the article to find out it was an Onion-style satire, but this was unfortunately for real. Apparently, the civil rights movement has yet to make it to Alabama, nor has the news that the United States now has a black president. What message is this possibly sending to the graduates at the school? It is ok to go to school together because we are forced to allow you by law, but God forbid you should attend Prom together because there might happen to be the unpardonable sin of interracial dancing?
Most of the students quoted in the article depicted the town as racist from older generations, but said that many, many white and black students were friends. One girl talked about the nasty stares she received if she walked in the street with her black boyfriend. The year is 2009. There is a black President of the United States. Spike Lee's ground-breaking movie about interraacial relationships ,"Jungle Fever", was made in 1991- 18 years ago.
Not only was the prom segregated by race, the "White Prom" also highlighted a poverty and class divide- the tickets were $200 a head as a majority of the black students didn't have the funds necessary to pay their way into the "White Prom".
Unfortunately, the white-prom situation does not seem to be isolated to this particular school. Just last year, Morgan Freeman paid for a "mixed prom" in Mississippi. The prom is now the topic of a documentary. For the CNN report about the prom, look here. For more student perspectives on a white-only prom elsewhere check here.