Unfortunately, that has not always been the case.

In the early and mid-1900s, pools were often the setting of social, economic, and racial disparity that resulted in a decades-long battle towards the desegregation of pools. 

“There are long-lasting implications of segregation, and it's really apparent when you look at it from an aquatics perspective,” said Dr. Knolan Rawlins, an Associate Professor in the Department of Public & Allied Health Sciences at Delaware State University.

For Rawlins, who has been a part of numerous research projects on the topic of social justice, aquatics programming, and water safety, the history of racial segregation in pool access is one that he has become all too familiar with. For modern-day swimmers who may not know the whole story, it is one that is immensely important to the history of swimming at both the recreational and competitive levels.

Pre-1900s
While formal pools didn’t form until nearly a century after the Revolutionary War, the art of swimming had been around for long before then. One of the more notable swim stories in the Black community (before pools became established in the U.S.) was that of Tice Davis, a slave who swam across the Ohio River in 1831 to find freedom. 

“Africans were phenomenal swimmers before slavery,” said Rawlins. “When they came over to the U.S. as slaves, that culture shifted quickly. Water was used as a punisher and often runaway slaves were drowned in front of all the other slaves.”

As swimming slowly gained momentum in white communities, the sport settled its roots in Boston, Massachusetts, with the first American municipal pool opening in 1868. While it was an exciting launch, access to the pool was split between men and women. 

Early 1900s
Most pools remained split between men and women until 1913 when St. Louis opened its first gender-integrated swimming pool. 

Racial tensions surrounding pools arose in the early 1900s, perhaps most notably with the Brookside Plunge pool in Pasadena, California. The municipally owned facility opened with the rule that all non-white swimmers could only use the pool once a week before the pool’s morning cleaning, which sparked protests throughout Black communities in the area. Per the Portland Center Stage at the Armory, “some historians point to the fight for the right to swim in Pasadena as the start of the modern Civil Rights Movement.”

With swimming access and opportunities looking bleak for Black communities, all-Black swim teams started forming nationwide in the 1910s and 1920s.

1920s-1940s
Swimming’s popularity exploded in the 1920s and 1930s, thanks to the Olympic emergence of American swimming icons such as Johnny Weissmuller, Duke Kahanamoku, and Trudy Ederle, among others.

The growth – both competitively and recreationally – resulted in thousands of municipal pools being constructed nationwide as cities started to permit men and women to swim together at public pools.

Despite the rise in popularity and improvements on the gender-inclusion front, the racial segregation battle over swimming pools remained with little-to-no improvement.

Riots became a commonality at local pools nationwide, even dominoing into federal mandates being imposed that ordered racial segregation of pools in various cities. White swimmers in Pittsburgh turned to violence to ensure that integrating their town’s Highland Park Pool by gender would not lead to integrating by race.

Competitively, as white swimmers continued to receive national and global praise, all-Black swim teams went on their own path, resulting in the first National Colored Swimming Championship in Washington, D.C., in 1931. The competition featured teams from various major cities and would continue annually into the 1940s. 

1950s-1960s
As public schools started to integrate across the country, pressure to do so at swimming pools continued to escalate. 

The pressure resulted in massive pool closures nationwide in fear of allowing access to African Americans if they remained open. The decision to close pools made swimming almost exclusively available to those who could afford private lessons or a backyard pool, hindering the chances of learning to swim for countless underserved Black communities in the U.S. – an impact that still has effects showing today.

“There’s an African American drowning disparity cycle,” Rawlins explained. “If parents don't swim, it's a greater likelihood that their children don't swim, and then their children don’t swim, and so on. There are long-lasting implications of segregation.”

Ultimately, a federal mandate came down to desegregate public swimming pools in Washington, D.C. in 1950, kicking off a string of federal mandates that ordered public pools nationwide to desegregate.

As swimming opportunities continued to build momentum, Black swimmers such as Leroy Jones and Nate Clark started to enter the NCAA Swimming scene, breaking barriers that seemed impossible just a few years prior. 

1970s-Modern Day
1973 marked a landmark moment in the racial desegregation of pools, as the Supreme Court ruled that no private club could exclude someone due to their racial identity. The ruling paved the way for swimming in Black communities at local and competitive levels.

After 1975, numerous “firsts” would go down in swimming history: first Black swimmer to set an American Record (Sabir Muhammad, 1975), first Black swimmer to make a U.S. National Team (Chris Silva, 1982), first Black swimmer to win an Olympic medal for the United States (Anthony Ervin, 2000), first African American to hold a swimming world record (Cullen Jones, 2008), first Black woman to win an individual Olympic medal (Simone Manuel, 2016), first Black head coach of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team (Anthony Nesty, 2024). 

The sport has certainly come a long way in terms of its inclusivity, though it still has a long way to go. From Dr. Rawlins’ perspective, he believes these monumental lifts of Black swimmers in the modern era could have a tremendous impact.

“Although it (racial disparity in swimming) is still a problem, we often focus on the problem, not the solution,” Rawlins said. “Representation is huge. People identify with people who look like them. To have Cullen Jones and to have Maritza McClendon do so well, that matters a great deal. 

“It was really interesting, when Simone won her gold medal, she listed all the other African American women who came before her and inspired her. She kind of said, ‘if they can do it, I can do it.’”

Moving Forward
The sport of swimming has made great strides in America but still has a way to go. 

The USA Swimming Foundation has found that, currently, 64% of African American children have little to no swimming ability. If a parent does not know how to swim, there is only a 19% chance that a child in their household will learn to swim.

“I did a study at Delaware State University where I asked individuals if they could swim, and many students said they could swim, and they actually couldn't swim,” Rawlins explained. “Even students who admitted they couldn't swim talked about going to the beach. They said, ‘well, I only get my knee deep in water.’ So, there's some safety concerns, but it comes from a culture of, ‘why do I need to swim in the first place?’”

For additional resources on the importance of learning to swim, click here. For a more detailed timeline of events on the desegregation of pools and to see the resources used for this article, read this resource from the Portland Center Stage at the Armory or visit poolphl.com. To view more of Dr. Rawlins’ research projects, click here.