Fire Guts School Prior to Protest Against Controversial Principal

WEDOWEE, Ala. — A fire, apparently set, left a school in smoldering ruins Saturday and stoked tensions in a dispute over the principal who opposed interracial dates at the prom.

The fire gutted Randolph County High School classrooms only hours before marchers planned to form ranks for protests targeting Principal Hulond Humphries.

Investigators were “99% sure it’s arson,” Sheriff Larry Colley said, though no one could say who may have set it or why.

The fire did not reach the adjoining elementary school, lunchroom and main offices in a newer structure where school records are kept. But as the smell of smoke hung over the community, the fire brought new anguish only two weeks before the school year begins.

Blacks seeking the ouster of Humphries, who is white, called off a protest march as tensions mounted and Ku Klux Klan members arrived in the east Alabama town.

“The danger is too great,” said a protest leader, the Rev. Emmett Johnson of Wedowee.

Humphries’ status has divided Wedowee, mostly along racial lines, since he told juniors and seniors in a Feb. 24 assembly that the prom would not be held because some students planned interracial dates.

Humphries, who relented the next day, said later that he was concerned about violence at the prom and was frustrated by unruly students at the assembly.

The prom was held in April, and protesters held an alternative dance as well.

The Justice Department filed a complaint alleging racial discrimination in the school system. It cited Humphries’ prom remarks and asked for a preliminary court order to remove him, pending trial.

A hearing on the principal’s status is scheduled for Thursday in federal court in Montgomery, Ala.