The Movie
There are 415 students at Charleston High School. 70% are black. 30% are white. Until 2008, the school board was clinging to the last vestige of segregation: separate proms for black students and white students. When Charleston native Morgan Freeman discovered this in 1997, he offered to pay for the prom, but only if it was integrated. His offer was ignored. Eleven years later, Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman approached him about making the proposal again, saying that he would make a documentary about it.
This time, whether because faculty had changed or because cameras were present, the board took Freeman up on his offer. Charleston High's principal, Bucky Smith, asks Mr. Freeman if he'll address the senior class and make sure that this is what they want. In a completely charming scene, Freeman does just that, and it is made very clear that for whatever reason the prom has remained segregated all these years, it is not because the students want it so. When Freeman makes the offer, almost all of the students say yes immediately, nodding their heads in approval. One girl asks Freeman, "What's our limit?" "$200," he says, and the kids crack up.
Of course, there are some problems. Not all of the kids are okay with the idea, and many of the parents aren't either. Prom Night in Mississippi is an eye-opening documentary, revealing much about the racial progress America still has to make. I always like to think that we're beyond such attitudes, at least so much so that blacks and whites can attend the same prom. A film like this is a splash of cold water, a reminder that we've still got a lot of growing up to do. The black kids and the white kids at Charleston High seem to get along just fine, despite some racial notions ingrained by their parents. They go to school together every day, after all, so why do there have to be separate proms?
Charleston, Mississippi remains beholden to practices of a bygone age. In a deleted scene, it is revealed that corporal punishment is still used at the high school, and before prom, the students and chaperones pray together. Black students admit that though they're friends with whites, they don't often visit their houses because it might be awkward, and vice versa. As such, there are hardly any interracial couples. Luckily, Saltzman was able to follow one, Cecily and Jeremy. Cecily is a white girl, Jeremy is a black boy. They've never gone on a date together because Cecily's father won't allow it. I can only imagine what would happen if Jeremy invited them over for dinner.
Article comments
1 - the real bob
Teaching high school in the deep south ten years ago, I discovered that there seemed to be voluntary segregation in the public schools. The farthest left row in the classroom was Vietnamese, the next two rows were white, and the remainder African- American. Some friendships crossed racial lines, but they were the minority. It was quite a shock to this yankee.