Today's story comes from NPR and is titled "Mississippi School Holds First Interracial Prom"
www.npr.org:80/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91371629
Although Brown vs. Board of Education outlawed racial segregation in public schools in 1954,
schools in the South were actually permitted to continue to segregate until 1970. One high
school in Charleston Mississippi, however, found a loophole to continue segregation of its high
school proms, a practice which continues today. So, there's a prom for white teens, and another
for black teens (the audio interview explains how).
The actor Morgan Freeman waited 10 years, but in 2008, the high school took him up on an offer
to integrate the prom (well -- not entirely; there is still a separate prom restricted to white
students). There's a movie coming out about this extraordinary event that may appear in the
Sundance Film Festival this year, and the director is interviewed. Freeman's success was from
the ground upward (i.e., he appealed to the kids, not to their parents).
Cultures and Laws collide, but as clinicians, we can examine our own beliefs and biases, and
help our patients and their families examine theirs. The following resources help to promote
cultural awareness:
RESOURCES ON CULTURAL AWARENESS AND CULTURALLY-COMPETENT CARE:
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A Physician's Practical Guide to Culturally Competent Care
https://cccm.thinkculturalhealth.org/ This interactive module is new new NEW! and is
produced by the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services
Medical Home: Culturally-effective Care
www.medicalhome.org/physicians/multicul_fam.cfm Washington State Medical Home
tools for clinicians
Index of regional culturally-based health-related services
https://depts.washington.edu/dbpeds/Resources.html#section4_textarea18_heading
And that's today's Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics: IN THE NEWS!