(This type of institutional exclusion is the exception rather than the rule in the South, but neither does the school depicted represent an isolated phenomenon in the region; a school’s segregated proms in Georgia was chronicled this year in The New York Times Magazine.) Black and white students date each other at the school, but the implication is that certain white parents fear this practice as the sane might fear nuclear terrorism. One black female student offered that the white parents didnât want the black male students âgrindingâ up against the white female students. And while the students may have been willing to hold just one united prom, some of their parents didnât relish the idea of the two races mingling. When the day in April 2008 arrives for the integrated prom, both black and white students are shown getting dressed, primping and sharing a limo ride to the event. While the students danced to their own individual beats, they were, in fact, all in harmony that evening, including the white guy who had two dates; the interracial couple (a black male and white female, whose father was an avowed âredneckâ but who slowly came to accept his daughterâs wishes; while the young manâs parents feared for him to visit the girlfriendâs home); and a black girl who felt cheated out of her spot as class valedictorian.Even though some of the parents didnât agree, the students were on to something, and this documentary goes a long way to show just what a group of concerned citizensâonce unitedâcan do to make its community more inclusive, all while making one of Charleston, Mississippiâs esteemed native sons proud as a peacock!Prom Night in Mississippi is directed by Paul Saltzman and was an official selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. In 1997 the actor Morgan Freeman, a Mississippi native, offered to subsidize the Charleston prom if it was integrated, but he was turned down. http://hbo.com/docs Freeman is not able to attend but sends his best wishes via video.The integrated prom is a success, and the students have a great time. In 2008 he approached the school again. And Freeman was dedicated to stump out at least a bit of the âstupidityâ that accompanied the mostly white parents who insisted on having two proms, because they didnât want their children mingling socially with the black students.But proms arenât just simple gatherings; thereâs much fanfare, anticipation and preparation attached to this time-honored festive rite of passage. Topic: Is anyone watching Prom Night in MS on HBO? 2.8K likes. Sometimes I can't believe how ass backwards our country is. One white parent shared that her grandmother thought that if God had wanted all people to be one and the same, he wouldnât have made people two different colors. It was interesting to us. They talk about black people.”Many of the prejudiced don’t speak with the filmmakers, and their more progressive children appear behind screens that make them unidentifiable, presumably because they worry that they’ll incur their parents’ wrath. This time his offer was accepted.The film chronicles the weeks leading up to the event, both the excitement expressed by the more open-minded members of the student body and the antipathies conveyed by parents, the divide in attitude being largely generational. I grew up in little bit larger south Alabama town that had combined proms from the time we went fully integrated in '70 or '71 (too long ago to remember). During last year’s presidential election, videos from the campaign trail surfaced, on YouTube and political blogs, confirming any reasonable person’s worst fears about racial views held by poor, uneducated white Americans.