CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/18/2015

Gillian Laub's 'Southern Rites' debuts on HBO tonight

Tonight at 9PM, HBO debuts Southern Rites, Gillian Laub's film documenting one community's struggle to confront longstanding issues of race and equality. Produced by Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe–winning musician John Legend, Southern Rites is based on Laub's forthcoming photo book, published by Damiani.

ABOVE: Julie and Bubba, 2002

Laub returns to the community in Georgia where she photographed segregated proms that garnered national attention when published in the New York Times Magazine. The proms are now integrated; but in the aftermath of a fatal shooting of a young black man and in the midst of a heated local election, the community still grapples with issues of race that extend well beyond the senior prom.

ABOVE: Seniors arriving at the first integrated prom, 2010

ABOVE: Shelby on her grandmother's car, 2008

ABOVE: Amber and Reggie

ABOVE: The prom prince and princess dancing at the integrated prom, 2011

To preorder Gillian Laub: Southern Rites, continue to the book page.