Rural county high school holds first integrated prom

COLUMBUS - A rural high school planned its first integrated prom Friday night, 31 years after the school was first desegregated. <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> 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> McCrary told The Associated Press last month, ``In the beginning, the students were afraid of change. But the kids got together. The students tore down the Berlin Wall. Both sides were tired of it. Now, I walk through the halls of the school and people are smiling. 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.