For Black teens, prom isn't just another school dance. It's a moment and a coming-of-age celebration. But some people are shaming Black teens for the lavish clothes, cars, and grand entrances at send-offs, calling it "Hood Prom." Black children deserve to be uplifted, not policed or put into boxes created by respectability politics. And aside from our love for adornment, prom has a racist history that we can't overlook.
The prom originated in the 19th century, when it was a “promenade”: a debutante ball that introduced marriageable young women to high society. By the 1950s, prom had become a mainstay in high schools across the country.
The Brown v. Board of Education ruling desegregated schools, but not proms. In 1970, when Mississippi's Charleston High School introduced an interracial prom, furious white parents organized an invitation-only dance just for their own children. In response, the Black parents did the same.
When actor Morgan Freeman, a Charleston native, offered to pay for an integrated dance in 1997, the school board refused. The racially segregated proms continued until his offer was accepted in 2008. Prom wasn't made for us. So we took it and made it uniquely ours. We should be uplifting and congratulating our young people, not shaming or adultifying them.
For generations, our bodies, movement, and expression have been policed. Black prom is everything it should be: creative, beautiful, and free.