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Swimming While Black Is Still a Revolutionary Act
Black people need equal access to America’s pools and waterways
My first summer job as a lifeguard made me a lover of all things summer. The sun seemed to kiss me, turning my skin dark brown. Each afternoon, I sat near the pool, watching kids splash about in the water. However, my favorite part of the day was in the mornings, when I taught Black children aged six and under how to swim. In an ideal world, the public pool would have hired a few water instructors, but the closest thing the facility had was me, a certified lifeguard willing to take on the job.
Many of the older children and teenagers did not know how to swim. Neither did their parents. While some White people assume Black people can’t swim, the truth is America’s history of segregation blocked access to this popular pastime. Thus, the swimming literacy gap is a product of systemic racism, not a referendum on Black people’s potential to learn.
I worked for the New Orleans Recreational Department, the same public program that integrated Audubon Park’s Pool on June 8, 1969. Seven years prior, White locals closed down this pool rather than comply with a court order that required desegregation of the facility. So, the summer of ’69 was seen as a victory for many New Orleanians — a time to celebrate. Not that our people need much of an excuse to get down.
Audobon’s public pool was once known as the largest pool in the South. Yet the city closed it in 1992 and replaced it with a much smaller natatorium. Across the nation, in different cities and towns, the pattern became clear — many White people were willing to go through a significant effort to avoid swimming with Black people. Given the fact that most Americans still live in segregated communities, that fear clearly still exists. Through my four summers of lifeguarding in a NORD pool, I never saw white children or adults join in the fun.
“Black folk and White people swimming together was just absolutely part of this ‘Black men getting close to white women’ idea,” said Leslie B. McLemore, a political scientist at Jackson…
