Until 2008, Charleston High School of Charleston, Mississippi had two proms - one for the white kids and one for the black kids. Even though the school had been desegregated in 1970 (16 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered all desegregation), the white parents refused to integrate the prom. This started a long-standing tradition of separate proms.Morgan Freeman grew up in Charleston and after gaining fame and fortune, he offered to pay for CHS's prom - as long as it was mixed. Morgan Freeman set up a film crew to follow certain kids around as they prepared for prom and interview them regarding the issue of race that continues to grip the town.
The final product, the documentary "Prom Night In Mississippi" is a glaringly honest picture into how racism still exists in the U.S. despite legislative and social changes in the fight for equality.However, what became clear through each interviews was that all of the inter-racial hate was directly caused by how the students had been raised. Most of the kids were in support of a mixed prom, and had been even before Morgan Freeman made his offer, but it was the parents who refused to let that happen.
This gives hope to America because even in a community like Charleston where racism guides most social proceedings, there is a generation coming of age who want to enact change. They are aware of the hypocrisy of equal rights when some students can't get jobs in Charleston because they are black or because they are white and have black friends.It's easy to think that racism is no longer an issue where we live but even on the North Shore, if you look around, how much diversity do you see? We need to ask ourselves how we can start enacting change for a stronger, more united America where the "race card" is no longer relevant and where racial stereotypes are long forgotten.
Progress is evident in America but documentaries like "Prom Night in Mississippi" show us there are still radical cases of racism and remind us that in our own communities, racism can still be evident in significantly less obvious ways.
How can we work to eliminate racism in our own communities?
I think that it is incredible that, one, they just had their first mixed prom, but even more so that they actually made a mixed prom happen. I applaud all those who helped in the process of making this happen. I think that it is often seen where the children sometimes blindly follow their parents' ideals. For the majority of the day you are surrounded by their presence. However, I find it interesting that even though some kids were raised in a household where racism exists, that they still found themselves wanting a mixed prom.
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