Jeff Wiltse: Swimming in the Long Shadows of Segregation
[Jeff Wiltse is associate professor of history at the University of Montana-Missoula and the author of "Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America."]
...Swimming as a recreational activity boomed in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s, when cities and towns throughout the United States built thousands of swimming pools. Many of these pools were larger than football fields and surrounded by concrete sun decks, grassy lawns, and artificial sand beaches. This pool-building spree helped popularize recreational swimming. Whereas relatively few Americans swam during the early 20th century, tens of millions of Americans flocked to municipal pools each year during the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Millions of Americans also participated in swimming lessons offered at the pools. By the end of the 1930s, swimming had become the most popular form of summertime recreation in many American communities.
All Americans, however, did not have access to these pools. Public officials and white swimmers throughout the United States segregated and excluded blacks Americans. Racial discrimination was pervasive in the North and in the South. In large cities, black residents typically were relegated to small "Jim Crow" pools. In the smaller cities and towns that had only one pool, black residents had no pool in which to swim. The primary cause of racial segregation and exclusion at municipal pools was mixed-gender use. White people did not want black men interacting with white women at such physically and visually intimate public spaces....
Read entire article at St. Louis Today
...Swimming as a recreational activity boomed in popularity during the 1920s and 1930s, when cities and towns throughout the United States built thousands of swimming pools. Many of these pools were larger than football fields and surrounded by concrete sun decks, grassy lawns, and artificial sand beaches. This pool-building spree helped popularize recreational swimming. Whereas relatively few Americans swam during the early 20th century, tens of millions of Americans flocked to municipal pools each year during the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. Millions of Americans also participated in swimming lessons offered at the pools. By the end of the 1930s, swimming had become the most popular form of summertime recreation in many American communities.
All Americans, however, did not have access to these pools. Public officials and white swimmers throughout the United States segregated and excluded blacks Americans. Racial discrimination was pervasive in the North and in the South. In large cities, black residents typically were relegated to small "Jim Crow" pools. In the smaller cities and towns that had only one pool, black residents had no pool in which to swim. The primary cause of racial segregation and exclusion at municipal pools was mixed-gender use. White people did not want black men interacting with white women at such physically and visually intimate public spaces....