You know when you watch something and it doesn’t click until a good few hours later? I’m watching the trailer for this movie thinking…okay Morgan Freeman looks kinda old in this…they have modern looking cell phones in this…THIS WAS RECENT! I guess I’m naive, but this school’s whole situation just bothered me. It’s nice to see that celebrities like Morgan Freeman haven’t become too Hollywood to be able to give back to their community.
A full synopsis of the documentary and also info on HBO’s visit to the school one year later can be found on the HBO website
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In 1997, Academy Award winning actor, Morgan Freeman, who lives in the Charleston, Mississippi community, offered to fund the first-ever integrated Senior Prom in the history of Charleston’s one high school. His offer was ignored. In 2008, Morgan offered again… the East Tallahatchie County School Board accepted. In this town of 2,300 people, its high school of 415 (70%/30%) black and white students has, to this day, always had separate proms: one black and one white. Prom Night in Mississippi follows the Charleston High senior class of 2008 preparing and attending their historic, first ever integrated prom, in the context of strong emotions, traditions, and conflict inherent in race relations in the community, in the Deep South, and by national association throughout the United States.
via Endangered Peace