Rural Georgia high school students maintain segregated proms
WRIGHTSVILLE, Georgia (AP) -- Students at a central Georgia high school held separate proms for whites and blacks this year, maintaining a dying practice in the rural South.
"It's always been like that," said Carla Rachels, 17, a Johnson County High School senior who helped organize Friday night's whites-only prom. "We don't see it as a big deal." Parents paid for the separate proms.
Taylor County, another rural area 90 miles west of Wrightsville, held an integrated prom last year, but added a separate whites-only prom this year.
After integration in the late 1960s, separate proms were common in the rural South, but Johnson and Taylor counties are among the last to cling to the practice.
Johnson County native and former professional football star Herschel Walker urged an end to segregated proms.
"Today I wish things would change a little bit," said Walker, who visited last week when the high school football field was named in his honor. "This world is changing so much. Coming after the war we just had, I think people can see we are a country, we are together."
Copyright 2003 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
