Rural county high school holds first integrated prom

COLUMBUS - Young couples in tuxedos and irridescent evening gowns arrived in stretch limos Friday night to attend their rural high school&#39;s first integrated prom, 31 years after the school was first desegregated. <br> <br> ``I think it&#39;s perfect,&#39;&#39; said junior Candice Grimsley, who is white. ``We go to school with these people every day. Why shouldn&#39;t we have (the prom) together?&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Students at Taylor County High School, located in a county of 8,800 midway between Columbus and Macon in central Georgia, voted overwhelmingly to hold an integrated prom this year. <br> <br> Many Southern schools retained segregated social activities for years after court-ordered integration, though Taylor County is one of the last known schools to hold separate proms for white and black students. Other schools still crown dual homecoming queens or have separate social clubs. <br> <br> Grimsley&#39;s date, 2001 graduate James Wilkinson, called Friday&#39;s event ``great.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``The last two proms I went to were segregated, and it just wasn&#39;t as much fun,&#39;&#39; Wilkinson said in the lobby of the Four Points Sheraton as music drifted in from the ballroom. ``This is just everyone getting together to have fun tonight.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Taylor County High School has 420 students, 226 of them black. Nearly 75 percent of the juniors and seniors supported the proposal for one prom, suggested this year by black 17-year-old Gerica McCrary. <br> <br> ``In the beginning, the students were afraid of change,&#39;&#39; McCrary told The Associated Press last month. ``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> 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, students shun the school-sponsored proms and attend private spring dances at country clubs or meeting halls instead. <br> <br> A group of Taylor County students appeared on NBC&#39;s ``Today&#39;&#39; show Friday to talk with Katie Couric about their first biracial prom. The attention has been a little uncomfortable for some at the school. <br> <br> Most couples arriving Friday evening declined to be interviewed, and reporters were asked to leave the ballroom when the event began at 7 p.m. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s really no big deal,&#39;&#39; teacher Steve Smith said. ``These kids really do get along together. They&#39;ve been together since kindergarten.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> But junior Karprice Bentley, who is black, said her class was able to pull it off because ``we&#39;re special.&#39;&#39; Her escort, junior Steven Dugger, said he hoped an integrated prom would be held every year from now on. <br> <br> ``This prom has been worth all the effort,&#39;&#39; Bentley said as couples inside the ballroom took to the dance floor. ``Both races are mingling.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Organizers expected between 200 and 250 people to attend. <br> <br> ``We hope we&#39;ve finally gotten past all those old attitudes,&#39;&#39; said high school secretary Marsha Starling, whose daughter is a junior at the school and planned to attend the prom. <br> <br> One Taylor County graduate said it never struck her as odd that students had segregated dances. Shandra Hill, who graduated in 1989, said the school also had separate pageants and senior superlative awards. <br> <br> ``I&#39;d never known anyone dating interracially so it wasn&#39;t a problem having separate proms,&#39;&#39; said Hill, who is black. ``It didn&#39;t really strike me as being strange until after I graduated and left the area. Where I grew up, the thinking is more limited.&#39;&#39;