Lest we forget and pretend that the situation never occurred, the following
is a chronology of the key developments in the Randolph County High School
(Wedowee, Alabama) interracial prom dispute:
Feb. 24 -- The white principal, Hulond Humphries, tells students he may
cancel the prom if interracial couples plan to attend. He allegedly tells
mixed-race student ReVonda Bowen that her parents made a "mistake."
March 14 -- Following demonstrations, the Randolph County Board of Education
votes to suspend Humphries pending an investigation.
March 15 -- Bowen, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, sues
Humphries and the board.
March 31 -- The board votes 4-2 to reinstate Humphries, setting off new
protests and a student boycott.
April 23 -- The prom is held, with Bowen and her white boyfriend in
attendance. They also attend a counter-prom held at a National Guard
Armory.
May 17 -- The Justice Department asks a judge to remove Humphries from his
post, in part because of his alleged remark to Bowen.
June 15 -- A judge begins to mediate a settlement in the Justice Department
lawsuit. A trial is scheduled for October.
June 21 -- Lawyers for Bowen and the board announce a settlement in which
the board admits no wrongdoing and agrees to pay Bowen $25,000 for her
college education.
Aug. 2 -- The Justice Department files a motion seeking Humphries' immediate
removal and an immediate end to the school's "racially hostile
environment."
Aug. 6 -- Fire destroys the high school.
Aug. 8 -- School board votes unanimously to reassign Humphries to work in an
administrative position rebuilding the school. The board appoints a white
man to succeed him and a black woman as a second assistant principal.
Many questions remain, however, such as who set the fire that gutted the
building?
Why was the multiracial community's response to all the events nonexistent?
What will be the future of race relations in Randolph County?
As to who torched the Wedowee high school, it depends on who you ask. Most
African-Americans and quite a few multiracial folks will quickly charge
white supremacist elements such as the Ku Klux Klan or its sympathizers.
This flies into the face of logic and of this country's history of civil
strife, however, going back to the Watts riots in Los Angeles nearly thirty
years ago. The fact is, white supremacist bigots don't normally burn down
establishments in their own neighborhoods where their own people eat,
sleep, entertain themselves and educate their children. The Wedowee high
school is 62 percent white and 38 percent black. Two-thirds of the town's
800 residents are white as well.
To be sure, though, supremacist elements were well represented in Wedowee
before the fire. The school burned just hours before scheduled
demonstrations by the Ku Klux Klan as well as the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference.
Too, just before a prayer service on August 21 where whites and blacks
gathered, attempting to foster racial harmony in beleaguered Wedowee, the
Klan demonstrated in a nearby community and burned a cross as part of what
it called a recruitment rally.
Klan presence does not absolve others of striking a match, however, just
because the white sheet and hood crowd seems to have perfected it to an art
form.
It has recently been reported by the Associated Press that former Milwaukee
city alderman and current radio talk show host Michael McGee says he'll
recruit blacks around the country to cut phone lines, burn tires on
freeways and attack other institutions unless the government creates jobs,
improves education and housing, and takes other steps against urban poverty
by January 1.
McGee calls himself the leader of the "Black Panther Militia." A chapter of
the militia was recently organized in, of all places, Wedowee, Alabama. The
school burned hours after Mmoja Ajabu, McGee's handpicked "militia
commander," addressed his recruits. Ajabu said he didn't know who burned
the school down.
What passes for the organized multiracial community has had its hands firmly
tucked underneath its collective derriere from day one of this story.
Instead of viewing ReVonda Bowen as a living, breathing individual of
mixed-race who had been wronged and who may have required comfort, support
and solace, she was viewed more in the abstract light of a legal test case.
Certain persons were eager to see if any charges would be brought against
Hulond Humphries after his allegedly referring to Ms. Bowen as a "mistake."
The thought was that if he could be found to have deprived ReVonda of her
civil rights in any way, that would provide extra pressure that could be
brought to bear on OMB (Office of Management and Budget, which has the
final say in establishing "official" racial classifications) to approve the
multiracial category for the 2000 Census.
In other words, if a court had found that a mixed-race person's civil rights
had been abridged in this case, wouldn't that also have, in effect,
established the "legal reality" of such a multiracial grouping that the
bean-counters in Washington would be forced to consider? It was a nice
legal hypothesis, but it didn't work. Humphries and the school board
settled out of court, ReVonda has $25,000 for her college education, and
the multiracial community is still positioned with buttocks-on-hands.
Opportunity missed!
As for the future of race relations in Randolph County, it's anybody's
guess. If left in the hands of the younger generation, though, it might be
a rosier one.
As a new year of classes began near burned-out Randolph County High School, Nikki O'Neal was ready for journalists to point their cameras at something other than her high school. The bubbly senior and some of her classmates hoped that all the fuss about race relations would end.
"If it hadn't been for the adults and the media, none of this would have ever
come out," said O'Neal, 16, who is black. "Some of that's good, some of
it's bad."
Many adults, however, are the ones who seemingly can't get it together. Even
at the aforementioned August 21 prayer service, there was a certain amount
of discord. Standing before a barren field that was the site of the
Randolph County High School until arson destroyed the building, the mostly
white group sang "Amazing Grace" and heard both black and white clergy call
for a new mood of racial harmony. Some local black leaders criticized the
service, however, saying white clergymen had organized it without
consulting them.
"Many blacks didn't come because they resent the way this was set up. There
are black ministers speaking, but they are not speaking for the whole
community because they were not elected by the whole community," said the
Rev Henry Sterling.
Several blacks who attended the prayer service did not share Sterling's
concerns, though.
"If we had all gotten together before, maybe we never would have had these
problems," said Judy Green.
The third leg of the racial triad was missing as the Wedowee saga unfolded.
There were no members of this country's mixed-race community offering to
mediate the immediate racial strife and division. We did not send a
fact-finding committee to glean valuable information as to how we could be
of future use along these lines. We did not feel compelled to show others
that there is an alternative to the insane "race" game.
We did not offer succor to ReVonda.
Opportunity missed!
If, God forbid, a similar episode occurs in the future -- such as one where
a mixed-race youth is labeled a "mistake" -- will the mixed-race
community's response remain muted, or will we respond by putting some
"troops on the ground" as soon as the story breaks? Don't hold your breath
for that one.
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