When Mareshia Rucker was a high school senior in 2013 at Wilcox County High School in Georgia, USA, she led efforts to get her high school to hold a single, racially integrated, senior prom.[1][2][3]
Previously her high school had only allowed students to attend racially segregated parties.
Her struggles brought world-wide attention on her school, and on Rucker, personally.[3][4]
Rucker was interviewed by Amy Goodman on National Public Radio on April 27, 2013.[5]
Rucker disputed assertions by local politicians that there was no support for a desegrated party within the student body.
Mitch Potter, writing in the Toronto Star, reported that Rucker and her friends encountered considerable local opposition to the idea of an integrated prom.[6]
Not only wouldn't the local school board make space available, they wouldn't even sign a general letter of support for the idea of an integrated party.
Potter described Mareshia as coming from a strong family, still considered newcomers to rural Rochelle, Georgia, even though her grandmother moved her family there decades ago.
Jamie Gumbrecht, of CNN characterized Mareshia as a good student, and reported that she participated in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, a program the American military has to turn patriotic students into members of its military reservist program.[1]
In November, 2014, Rucker was invited to the opening of an exhibit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, celebrating her efforts.[4][7][8]
Rucker's prom dress was the center of the exhibit. CBC News reports that a crowdfunding campaign supplied the funds to pay for the trip of Rucker and four of her relatives, who were guests of honour at several events.[9]
References
^ ab
Jamie Gumbrecht (2013-12-31). "Segregated prom tradition yields to unity". CNN. Archived from the original on 2013-05-01. Retrieved 2014-12-01. Mareshia is 17, a good student, a cheerleader who's active in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. She knew long ago that proms were segregated, but she didn't think much about it till last year, when she and three friends first realized they'd be split up.
^
Robbie Brown (2014-04-26). "A Racial Divide Closes as Students Step Up". New York Times. p. A10. Archived from the original on 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2014-11-30. Mareshia Rucker watched in frustration last weekend as several dozen classmates in tuxedos and gowns walked into an Art Deco theater for her high school's "white prom."
^ ab
Tamara Forlanski (2013-11-24). "Teen visits dress that helped bridge racial divide at Rights Museum". Global News. Archived from the original on 2014-11-26. Retrieved 2014-11-30. A young African-American woman who organized the first racially integrated prom in her community is in Winnipeg to tour the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Mareshia Rucker's prom dress is on display in the museum's Inspiring Change gallery.
^
Mitch Potter (2013-04-22). "Integrated Prom shines racism spotlight on southern Georgia county". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2014-12-01. Says Mareshia: "Feelings are raw right now. But we know in our hearts we're doing the right thing. Things are different for people our age. There are some racist attitudes in the school, but for the most part you have real friendships between black and white. For us, the times are changing. "The real hope is that this has an afterlife. That what we started can carry on with just one prom in the years ahead."
^
Lara Schroeder (2013-09-23). "Teen who organized school's first integrated prom headed to Canada". Global News. Archived from the original on 2014-11-19. Retrieved 2014-11-30. Mareshia Rucker, the 19-year-old who last year organized her Georgia high school's first racially integrated prom, will come to Winnipeg to see her dress in an exhibit at the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
