Prom Prince and Princess Dance, Lyons, Georgia

Inscriptions

Initialled, on white adhesive label, on reverse, lower right, in black ink: GL 7

Label

Prom, a treasured high school tradition, is usually shared by a high school class. In Montgomery County, Georgia, that was not the case in 2009. In “A Prom Divided,” a shocking article published in the New York Times, Gillian Laub described the segregated proms thrown by a local high school: one for white students on Friday and one for Black students on Saturday. National outrage after the article forced the proms to be integrated, as documented in this photograph.  

Laub took many photos of the newly integrated prom and shows even more images of the event in her documentary Southern Rites. Of all of her photographs, however, this one is particularly compelling. Consider the presence of teenage ritual, racialized beauty standards, and the tension in this image. What do you suppose the prom prince is thinking?

From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, curated by Abigail Smith '23, Conroy Intern

Course History

SART 30, SART 75, Photography II and III, Virginia Beahan, Spring 2019

HIST 23, American History since 1980, Julie Rabig, Spring 2020

WRIT 03.05, US History, Immigration, and Native Peoples, Douglas Moody, Winter 2021

WRIT 03.05, US History, Immigration, and Native Peoples, Douglas Moody, Winter 2021

SART 30/SART 75, Photography II/III, Virginia Beahan, Spring 2022

Sociology 1.01, Introduction to Sociology, Kimberly Rogers, Spring 2023

Studio Art 29.01, Studio Art 30.01, Studio Art 75.01, Photography I/II/III, Virginia Beahan, Spring 2024

Sociology 1.01, Introduction to Sociology, Kimberly Rogers, Spring 2024

Studio Art 29.01, Photography I, Virginia Beahan, Summer 2024

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 104, Southern Gothic, Abigail Smith, Class of 2023, Conroy Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 8–February 27, 2022.

Provenance

Marina and Andrew E. Lewin, New York, New York; lent to present collection, 2015; given to present collection, 2018.

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Subjects