Georgia Teens Look to Dump Segregated Proms

We're now well into 2013—but don't tell that to the citizens of Rochelle, Ga., who prefer to party like it's 1949 at racially segregated proms and homecoming dances. Four students at Wilcox County High School are now attempting to fight back against their town's "embarrassing" tradition by organizing their own integrated prom, reports CBS Atlanta. But not all of their classmates are so open-minded. "I actually put up posters for the integrated prom and we've had people ripping them down at the school," says one of the students.

The high school itself does not organize the dances, so it's technically legal for students and parents to organize separate black- and white-only proms. The school finally abolished racially segregated courts for the first time at this year's homecoming, but there were still two dances. A black student, one of the integrated prom organizers, was elected queen, but attended a different dance than her king, and separate photos were taken for the yearbook. "I felt like there had to be a change," she said. "Because for me to be a black person and the king to be a white person, I felt like, you know why can't we come together?" (More segregation stories.)