Wilcox County High School to Host Prom in 2014

ROCHELLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – When Mariesha Rucker leaves her home in Abbeville for college, she will leave behind a long lasting legacy. Next year, for the first time ever, Wilcox County schools officials will sponsor a prom, leaving the tradition of privately sponsored segregated proms in the past.

The new prom comes just a month after Rucker and her friends shook the community by hosting the first integrated prom. For the past 30 years, parents have funded private separated dances, one for black students and one for white students.

Wilcox County School Superintendent Steve Smith plans to put an end to it all by hosting a prom in the Wilcox County High School gym. Like Rucker’s group, he wants the students to work and raise the money and plan the event as a class. The high school is forming a committee of students, faculty and staff to begin the planning process.

In a statement Smith wrote, “after conducting a survey of students and staff, WCHS Principal Chad Davis has stated that his Leadership Team and faculty have decided to host the school’s first school-sponsored prom in the spring of 2014.:”

For Rucker, the girl who started it all, the business of breaking down racial barriers is now in the hands of the next class.

“Anything that you feel is important or that is going be beneficial not just to you but to others beside yourself, it’s always worth the fight,” Rucker said, “no matter how hard you have to fight, no matter how long it takes, it’s worth it.”

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