Prom Delayed 50 Years: Milestone Arrives Late, But Worth The Wait; Class of 1963 Finally Get Their Prom

50 years since one of the hardest fights for civil rights, a well deserved prom was given to the class of 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama this past Friday.

One of the women whose prom was delayed for 50 years spoke out about her experience. "As a child, I recognized that it was unfair, but didn't understand that there were laws propping (segregation) up," Earnestine Thomas said as she waited for a hair appointment before Friday's prom, according to CNN.

Back in 1963, proms were cancelled in five of the segregated schools in fear of the safety of the students during the volatile Civil Rights Movement.

An American right of passage was denied to the poor students back in 1963.

Birmingham received national attention in the 1950's and 1960's for it's courageous struggle for equality amongst the nation.

Birmingham, Alabama was a scary place to grow up during the Civil Rights Movement. Many were steadfast in their beliefs against segregation and were willing to go to great lengths to stop the fight for equality-even as far as murder.

In 1963 Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr. co-founded "Project C," which was a plan against the Jim Crow laws. The two organized peaceful sit-ins and mass marches that were met with police repression, tear gas, attack dogs, fire hoses, and arrests.

More than 3,000 people were arrested during "Project C" but the protests was ultimately a success by not only bringing desegregation to public places in Birmingham but also the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Cynthia May and her friends were the first ones to board the bus the day that the signs relegating blacks to the back of the bus were removed, around the summer of 1962. The teens sat directly in the front but then white teens began boarding the bus, they stood rather than sit behind the black teens, according to CNN.

"It was a tension-filled city," May said, according to CNN.

Thanks to the courageous fight of the men and women of this time, America will be forever changed for the good, and we can only hope they received the prom they deserved last Friday.