Candace Stewart

Americanization
MWF 10-10:50 AM
Eportfolio Assignment
Segregated Proms

The United States has come a very long way of being

accepting towards others and treating people of all kinds as
equals. Though sadly, with no doubt, there will always be
discrimination in the world. For example, the segregated high
school proms that take place in the state of Georgia. Sometimes
we cant help or really change when people are discriminatory.
Though with biased decisions like this, hopefully would be taken
seriously and action would be taken upon them.
In Mount Vernon, Georgia, and 19 year-old high school
student described the injustice that was happening in her school
to Gillian Laub, a New York photographer known for family
portraiture with a sense of unreality in 2002. (Grigoriadis). Anna
Rich, a student of Montgomery County High School, told Laub how
she wasnt able to take her black boyfriend to the schools prom
resulting from her high schools racially segregated prom and
homecoming celebrations. (Grigoriadis). Laub traveled to the
town to visit Rich shortly after and has been documenting the

Candace Stewart
Americanization
MWF 10-10:50 AM
Eportfolio Assignment
Segregated Proms

Mount Vernon community ever since. In 2009, her photographs of

the Montgomery County High Schools segregated proms were
published in The New York Times Magazine, resulting in national
outrage that led the town to finally integrate. (Grigoriadis).
Laub said that these segregated proms werent about
separating the community, but actually about interracial dating.
Interestingly, when I interviewed one of the first crossover
teachers at the school, she explained that the tradition actually
started in a democratic way, because when the schools integrated
in the early '70s, they didnt want the queen to always be white.
They had two on the principle of separate but equal, and both
would win. (Laub, Grigoriadis). Laub also mentions how she
heard that when the pictures of the dance were published in Spin,
parents were driving to Atlanta to buy all the copies off of the
stands so no one would see it. (Grigoriadis). She called up the
school later in 2008 with hopes that the proms werent
segregated anymore because like she said, Obama was president
now in the first place. Laub asked, Hey, Im just wondering when

Candace Stewart
Americanization
MWF 10-10:50 AM
Eportfolio Assignment
Segregated Proms

your prom was? and they said, Which one? Thats when she
figured that they werent changed after all. They can still get
away with this segregation because its a private event and
funded by the parents.
Even with how far our country has come, these school
dances really show that in our world, there are still inappropriate
decisions being made about equality for everyone. As for class,
we have learned about groups of different races merging
together. For example, in the book At the Hands of Persons
Unknown, we learned about how life for the blacks and how they
were treated was heinous. They were being falsely accused,
tortured, and killed just because they were looked upon as
animals and not as equal human beings. Though our world surely
changed resulting from these events in the past. People saw how
wrong these actions were and took action to put an end to it, and
with time, it did. This and many other events shaped our world
today for the best for people to be treated equally and lawfully. In
class it was also discussed how blacks were segregated from

Candace Stewart
Americanization
MWF 10-10:50 AM
Eportfolio Assignment
Segregated Proms

whites from bathrooms, schools, stores, transportation, and other

everyday life situations, which is exactly what is going on in
Georgia when the school is segregating the dances.
The segregated school dances in Georgia are just part of the
discriminatory situations that have happened or happening now in
the world. Though our country has come quite a ways and has
evolved into a more accepting and lawful world, its still
distressing to know that prejudice situations like this still exist in
the world. Though other than that, it seems like things havent
really changed at all. Its true that sometimes you cant please
everyone or there will always be wrong doings in the world.
Though its time to take action and try to change the world for the
best- hoping that it will become more accepting to others. Where
everyone sees everyone as equals; as human beings.
Im very fortunate to have taken this course. I knew that
there was discrimination against race in the world back then, and
even now. Though before I took this class, I didnt realize exactly
how many racial groups were discriminated against and how bad

Candace Stewart
Americanization
MWF 10-10:50 AM
Eportfolio Assignment
Segregated Proms

it actually was. Other racial groups history doesnt get as much

recognition as they should be getting. Im very familiar with the
history behind slavery and the ways blacks were treated, though
before I took this class I didnt realize just how many trails others
went through as well. Like the Native Americans, and the
Hispanics that I also learned about in this course. I learned that
even though most of our world became more accepting, it seems
like things havent really changed at all. Every racial group has
been discriminated against one way or another, and its really
unfortunate that that is the case.

Bibliography
Grigoriadis, Vanessa A New Documentary Explores the Recent
History of Segregated Proms, The Cut, May 15, 2015. Web.

Candace Stewart
Americanization
MWF 10-10:50 AM
Eportfolio Assignment
Segregated Proms

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/05/new-documentary-exploressegregated-proms.html
Dray, Philip At the Hands of Persons Unknown, New York, US
Random House, Inc. 2002, Print.