This past weekend I happened to catch a show on HBO that really peaked my interest. Halloween night I fell asleep with the TV on (this is rare, honestly) only to wake up and catch part of a documentary titled "Prom Night in Mississippi." As I read the opening credits I found myself shocked at what I was reading. At first I thought that I was having a dream, but just to make sure it was real I set my DVR to record the next showing, and then drifted back to dreamland. The next night I began to watch the documentary and discovered what I saw was no dream at all. The premise of the documentary is this:
In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court orders the integration of all segregated schools in America.
In 1970, sixteen years later, the town of Charleston, Mississippi, allows black students into their white high school. White parents refused to integrate the school graduation dance, starting a tradition of parent organized white proms and black proms.
In 1997 Morgan Freeman, a Charleston resident, offers to pay for the prom - if it's integrated. His offer is ignored.
In 2008, Morgan offers again.
This is where the documentary begins, with Morgan proposing his offer to the school board in Charleston. Now before I dive in to the main outcomes the documentary showed, I want to begin with the many issues already obvious. If you're a California resident like me, you will be shocked that a school would have segregated proms in 2008. Another shock was the fact that Morgan resides in Charleston, but I can see how a small town would attract a famous actor, and from what I can tell he spent some time in Charleston as a child. Another startling factor is Morgan's offer is his second! The one in 1997 was ignored. I am not totally naive to the fact that racism has deep roots in the south, and many people still have views that date back to the 1800's. I recall my uncle being vehemently opposed to driving through Mississippi when we drove to Alabama in 1988, because my brother and my cousin were going to attend Alabama State University. This documentary confirmed why my uncle felt this way.
So now to the documentary. As I watched I noticed the students, our future generation, had no problems being integrated. In fact most, but not all, had many friends of different races. The school is 70% African American, and there are teachers of both races represented. A few white students did express how they did not like African Americans, but you could tell that it was a learned response from their parents. To be fair I am sure the the opposite is true, African American students who did not like whites, but the documentary did not show any. The sports teams were integrated and no one seemed to have a problem with it at all. But when it came to the prom the tradition of segregated proms had no signs of changing before Morgans offer. After the offer was accepted some of the parents of the white students decided to still have a white only prom. This really disappointed me, especially since this is not a large school. I believe the entire senior class was less than 100. The parents of the white students who organized this prom hired an attorney! What could they possibly need an attorney for? To keep the camera crew away and threaten a law suit if they stepped foot on or near the property where the white prom was being held. After the prom the attorney told the camera crew that the parents would not speak on camera because they did not want to be portrayed as bigots or racist. WHAT! Lets see if I have this right. A rich actor agrees to pay for a prom if it is integrated, for a school that is already integrated, where the students are all friends. But the parents decide to have a private prom, where in this economy costs them money they probably could use elsewhere, where the camera crew isn't invited, and oh....blacks aren't either. Then on top of that, money is spent on an attorney, and they are afraid an appearance in this documentary will portray them as racist? Wow. The good news is many of the white students attended both proms, and some even refused to attend the white only prom.
Now I could go on about so many other good points in this documentary but I don't want to ruin it for everyone. I really encourage people to take a look at it. However I want to shift to what really bothered me about this. Where is the church? There was no pastor interviewed, no mention of a youth pastor stepping in, or even a hint of clergy anywhere. Now even though this is a small town I know there is at least a pentecostal church and a catholic church. It reminded me of the many churches that stood by and did nothing during slavery in this country, and beyond that when segregation existed into the sixties. Notice how courts ordered integration in schools in 1954 but in Charleston it didn't happen for sixteen years? So here is my fear, that the church continues to lag behind. Are there issues in our community that maybe affecting our children and youth? Is the church not taking an active role in these issues and lagging behind? Is it going to take sixteen years before we intervene or shall we wait for our own Morgan Freeman's in our communities to step up. I pray that we can all take a hard look at our current issues in our communities and ask ourselves, should the church be involved?
