Students plan county's first integrated prom

BUTLER - Nearly 15 years before Gerica McCrary was born, recently integrated Taylor County High School stopped sponsoring a prom. Parents and students set up their own - one for blacks and one for whites. <br> <br> The tradition continued for 31 springs in this rural county of 8,800 midway between Columbus and Macon, until McCrary asked her fellow juniors to ``stand for what is right&#39;&#39; and vote to hold one prom for students of all races. <br> <br> ``In the beginning, the students were afraid of change,&#39;&#39; she said. ``But the kids got together. The students tore down the Berlin Wall. Both sides were tired of it. <br> <br> ``Now, I walk through the halls of the school and people are smiling,&#39;&#39; she said. ``It brings tears to my eyes. We are in unity.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The junior class in responsible for setting up each year&#39;s prom, so next year&#39;s class could vote to go back to separate dances. But McCrary and others are hopeful that their bash on May 3 - at a hotel 50 miles away in Columbus - will end the long history of segregation. <br> <br> ``We hope that it is such a positive thing that the juniors will do it again next year,&#39;&#39; said Steve Smith, a high school algebra teacher, who attended Taylor County schools during desegregation. ``We work together. We go to school together. Why is one night out of the year a big deal?&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Smith and his wife are assisting the junior class on behalf of their daughter and niece, both Taylor County students. He is not working on the dance as part of his job, because the school - like many others across the South - severed ties to proms after integration. <br> <br> Public schools in the rural South ignored federal orders to desegregate for decades, and Taylor County did not allow blacks and whites to sit in the same classrooms until 26 years after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education, which declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Many rural Georgia high schools didn&#39;t integrate until the 1970s. After that, many school officials stopped sponsoring proms, in part because of the fear of interracial dating. <br> <br> Parents and students would hold their own proms almost always separated by race. Taylor County is among the last to cling to the practice. <br> <br> Even today, Taylor County school officials don&#39;t like to discuss the prom, saying it is a private event. In some other south Georgia counties, many white students refuse to attend school-sponsored proms, instead going to private spring dances at local country clubs or meeting halls. <br> <br> Taylor County High has 420 students, 226 of them black. Nearly 75 percent of the school&#39;s juniors and seniors supported McCrary&#39;s proposal to have one prom. <br> <br> Ralph Noble, president of the 37,000-member Georgia Association of Educators, said the students&#39; decision ``truly shows that children are wiser than adults many times. <br> <br> ``We believe that children should learn to live in a multicultural society, appreciate differences between people and celebrate diversity,&#39;&#39; said Noble, a teacher in Whitfield County. ``The world of public schools is just that where all should be welcomed. Having separate proms is certainly counterproductive to that.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> McCrary, who has a 4.0 average and participates in several extracurricular activities, said she was inspired by a classroom slogan that said: ``Stand for what is right, or stand alone.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``At first, I was standing alone,&#39;&#39; she said. ``Some thought it was absurd. I wanted unity, diversity, equality. Now, when I walk through the school, people congratulate me.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> McCrary and about a dozen fellow students discussed the dance while making prom decorations in the cafeteria this week. McCrary rushed from table to table, encouraging and praising classmates who were stuffing invitations into envelopes and painting signs festooned with glitter. <br> <br> ``She&#39;s definitely a leader,&#39;&#39; said Jeremie Williams, a black junior. ``I was for it all along. I saw how other schools were coming together and I thought we should come together and have one prom. I&#39;ll go and have a good time.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Smith said the class decision upset a few parents, but only because they have a hard time adjusting to change. <br> <br> ``I think the community supports it,&#39;&#39; he said, noting that the disc jockey and the person providing security offered to work for free. <br> <br> At Allen&#39;s Grocery, across from the county jail, cashier Lacey Stuckey, a white senior at the school, said the integrated prom makes sense. <br> <br> ``We had talked about it, but it never came together until this year,&#39;&#39; she said. ``I&#39;m sure you&#39;re going to have a few students who don&#39;t approve. But we all get along. We go to school together everyday. It ain&#39;t no biggie.&#39;&#39;