Prom Night in Mississippi (2009)

In the 1990s, Morgan Freeman offered to pay for the prom in his hometown of Clarkston, Mississippi if they agreed to have a desegregated dance. When he tried it again in 2008, the school and students took him up on the offer, but inexplicably white parents still decided to host a separate whites only prom. I went to a large enough high school that while dances were still a big deal to many, the whole community didn’t get involved as they seem to do here. The documentary suffers in that only one opinion is shown and those who try to interpret the other side’s reasons do so with the most unsympathetic interpretation. Not that I can imagine they’d come off as anything but racist or bigoted as their lawyer seems to fear, but it’d still feel more complete to hear them say why. It’s also very weird that the integrated prom then started with a prayer, but I guess it’s one issue at a time.