Phillip Freeman and Anna Hayes (Facebook)
A teenager’s trip to prom is supposed to be one of the most memorable experiences in high school.
But one teen in a small Arkansas town’s date to prom has caused a stir online because of her father’s furious reaction.
Anna Hayes of Lake Village, Arkansas went to prom with longtime friend Phillip Freeman, a black man, as her date. The two wore matching red wardrobes and had a good time at prom, she told BuzzFeed.
All went well at the dance and Hayes shared photos of their prom night to Facebook. What she got in response was something she was never expecting.
Hayes’ father saw the photos she posted to her Facebook account and was immediately livid. He allegedly sent extremely vulgar and racist messages to her cell phone and threatened her for taking a black man to prom.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Her Father Allegedly Threatened to Disown Her For Going to Prom with a Black Man
(Facebook)
Hayes was greeted by a series of racist text messages that used the n-word in addition to many other vulgarities and crude language. He promised to not pay for her college and said she is “dead to (him) before also threatening to “cancel” her phone plan.
See the text messages that Hayes received from her father below:
Hayes told BuzzFeed that her father has been “openly racist as long as she can remember” for “unknown reasons.”
“He had always been openly racist around me when I was growing up in his household, but it never really occurred to me what it exactly meant to be racist,” she said. “When you’re a child you look at the world completely different.”
Hayes reportedly lived with her dad for a while when she was younger after her parents got divorced. After that, she moved in with her mother and hasn’t had much contact with him since then.
Her dad’s threatening, racist text messages hit home for her because her half-sister on her mother’s side is biracial. She said that it isn’t the first time her father has called her terrible names.
“He has told me that if I ever dated a black guy that I will and would be dead to him,” she said. “I stood my ground for what I believe in. He has called me several horrible things before.”
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2. Hayes Clarified She’s Dating a Different Man & Freeman Is a Friend
(Facebook)
Ever since the text messages were shared publicly, Hayes and Freeman have received an outpouring of support and messages.
Many people have speculated that the two are dating, however that isn’t the case. Hayes clarified that in a message posted to her Facebook page that said she’s been in a relationship with Austin Starnes for the last four years.
(Facebook)
Hayes was the one to ask Freeman to be her date at the high school prom, saying that “he is just a close friend and he’s super cute so I asked him to go to prom with me.”
It actually wasn’t Hayes that sent the messages to BuzzFeed. Instead, it was Freeman that posted them to his Facebook page and soon enough, they went viral. She took a screenshot of the messages and sent them to him. He reportedly posted the messages to Facebook after becoming “more and more angry” when cycling through the texts.
But Hayes said she isn’t upset that Freeman came forward with the screenshotted messages. She said that “it’s important for people to see that racism is very much alive.”
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3. Hayes Said That Her Father Has Received Threats Ever Since the Messages Went Viral
(Facebook)
In a statement that she posted to her Facebook page, Hayes said that ever since the text messages went viral, her father, his current wife and his ex-wife have received threats.
Read her statement in the photo above.
She said that there is no need to send threats to anyone because “there is a peaceful and classy way to fight for what you believe in. Threatening someone and calling them all sorts of terrible things makes you just as wrong as my father was.”
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4. She Called for an End to Racism
(Facebook)
Hayes said she didn’t tell her father about prom because he isn’t involved in her life much anymore. So when she received the threatening, racist messages, she instantly felt “incredibly sad.”
“This just hurt more because I can not believe how anyone can hate someone they don’t even know because of their skin color,” she said in the BuzzFeed article. “Sadly enough, people are still racist everywhere around the world, but in the South, it is much worse.”
Hayes added that her mother was equally as shocked to see what her ex-husband sent to her daughter.
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5. Lake Village Is a Small Town In Southern Arkansas
(Facebook)
Lake Village is a city located in Chicot County in Arkansas. It’s a small city located in southeastern Arkansas.
At the 2010 census, the city reported a population of 2,575 people.
The racial makeup of the city is 56.15 percent black, 40.74 percent white, 1.38 percent Latino and 1.13 percent Asian. Much of the economy in the city is based on agriculture, which comes mainly from cotton, soybeans and wheat.
Hayes and Freeman attend Lakeside High School.
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Chris Bucher is a sports, politics and general news contributor to Heavy. A University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh graduate, Bucher spent time as the business editor at The Waukesha Freeman and was also the former sports assistant editor. You can follow him on Twitter @Buchage and reach him at chris.bucher@heavy.com.May 5, 2017 8:22 pm
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