Published: September 4, 1996

News in Brief

News in Brief

Hulond Humphries, the former Alabama high school principal who set off a furor with his proposed ban on racially mixed prom couples, has been virtually guaranteed the position of superintendent of the same district that relieved him of his duties. Humphries won 57 percent of the vote in the final Democratic primary for the superintendency of the 2,400-student Randolph County school district. He does not have a Republican challenger in the November election. Humphries' inflammatory comments to a student on racial mixing brought national attention to the town of Wedowee two years ago. The U.S. Department of Justice, which investigated the incident, eventually forced the local school board to remove him from his job as principal of Randolph County High School. The primary vote came as a shock to some blacks in the community. "I think a lot is attributable to the fact that the African-American population didn't turn out as much as they could have and should have," said school board member Charlotte Clark-Frieson, a vocal opponent of Humphries and president of the local National Association for the...