WADING IN THE WATER - BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2021

ADDENDUM ADDED ON JULY 1, 2022 TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE REPARATIONS FOR BRUCE'S BEACH. SEE BELOW.

WATER

African-Americans have a powerful history with oceans, lakes, ponds, marshes, and pools, that began when our ancestors were either thrown overboard from slave ships, because they would have become too sick during the journey to be ‘useful;’ or when they drowned themselves, rather than face the horrors of what would turn out to be 246 years of the agony, indignity, and fear of being someone else’s property, and being treated as though they were not human.

Slaves Being Thrown Overboard

In fact, on the beautiful island where I now live, there were 14 plantations. In 1803, 75 slaves rose in rebellion during a voyage from Savannah, killed their captors, grounded the ship, and purposely drowned themselves in the marshy waters, before they were to be resold to plantation owners here.

However, as it is for most people, water is also calming and purifying; and certainly for many Black Christians, beaches and pools have been the welcomed sites of their Baptisms, since slavery, and continuing to present day.

Baptism

After the Civil War ended, and the last slaves became aware of their freedom in 1865, technically, Black people were ‘free’ to live their lives as they chose. However the reality was that they were still treated as sub-human, and were denied access to so much.

The Starkness of Jim Crow

JIM CROW & MIGRATION NORTH

In the South, Jim Crow Laws were established in the 1890s, which separated White and Black people from everything, ranging from education, to voting, to leisure – with the provisions for Black people being the bare minimum and shabby – especially, if provided by government and White establishments. The segregated ‘Colored’ public beaches, for instance, were small and often full of polluted water (Note: this practice of separation and denial was not just in the United States. In the United Kingdom, for instance, well into the 1960s, a common sign from landlords could be seen in windows that read: ‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs’).

The Jim Crow era was official for approximately 75 years, but the practices continued beyond the abolishment of the laws; and in some cases, still do, in more subtle ways such as voter suppression, or social norms that are difficult to combat.

When slaves escaped their masters, they risked everything to make it to Northern States. After The Civil War, because of the way Black people were treated in the South, The Great Migration to the North occurred, 1916 - 1970 , where there were more job opportunities, less discrimination, and a freedom to create full and wholesome lives.

The Great Migration

Harlem Renaissance

SIT-INS

However, this does not mean that life was perfect, in the North, and Black people were not always welcome in some places – especially, when it came to leisure, such as travel, restaurants, and even beaches and pools. For instance, in the North, in the 1960s, it is possible that if an African-American family went out to dinner at a White-owned and patronized restaurant, the family would be seated in the back of the establishment, by the kitchen door; Hotels might place a Black family in the worst room, etc. Back in the South, during the Jim Crow era, Black people wanted equal access to all that they were being denied. This included restaurants. On February 1, 1960, four African-American college freshmen quietly sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter, in Greensboro, North Carolina, and ordered cups of coffee, even though it was illegal to do so. The ‘Greensboro Four’ were denied service, and the police were called, and thus the most publicized ‘sit-in’ to that date, was launched, and after several years, these protests eventually forced all restaurants to serve Black people. The protesters were peaceful. The deniers were not. Often shouting and throwing things at the Black people – even dumping food and drinks on their heads, to try to force them to leave. However, the protesters peacefully persevered.

The Greensboro Four

DUMPING FOOD & DRINK ON SIT-IN PROTESTORS

SWIM-INS & WADE-INS

At the same time that African-Americans were banned from restaurants, they were also denied access to beaches and pools. As early as 1919, teenager Eugene Williams was murdered in Chicago, after the raft that he and his friends were on, accidentally drifted into the invisible ‘White’ area of Lake Michigan. Eugene’s murder sparked one of the worst race riots that Chicago has ever seen, to this day.

In 1931, the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania opened a new, Highland Park beach and pool facility. In other pools, Black and White people were able to swim together because they were separated by gender. However, this was a unisex facility, so there was much sexual anxiety displayed over race-mixing. On opening day, thousands of people arrived, including many Black residents. Due to anxiety of racial gender mixing, pool attendants asked the Black people to provide ‘health certificates,’ proving that they were ‘disease-free’ – which, of course, they did not possess. When ~50 young, Black men arrived the next day, attendants let them in, but a larger crowd of White people jeered and attacked them. “Each Negro, who entered the pool, yesterday, was immediately surrounded by Whites and slugged or held beneath the water until he gave up his attempts to swim and left,” according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

In the Summer of 1949, 13-year-old Robert Gammon was so excited to swim in the new St. Louis, Missouri Fairground Park pool, which had technically opened to any race. However, Robert’s and other Black residents’ arrival caused the lifeguards to consider quitting, and on the first ‘integrated day,’ White pool-goers taunted their Black neighbors, made them walk a gauntlet to get to the pool, and hit them with their fists and even bricks. The White crowd grew to 5,000, and they chased all of the Black swimmers to the dressing rooms, where they hid until they could leave under police escort. As Robert left the pool, a White woman, with a baby carriage spit on him. This riot galvanized the Black community and became the catalyst for forcing improved race relations (but still so much work to do, even in 2021), in St. Louis.

Fairground Pool Persecution

Fairground Pool Persecution

In 1951, a winning Youngstown, Ohio Little League team was rewarded by the coach, with a swim in a public pool. Alfred (Al) Bright was the only African-American team member, and when they arrived at the pool, the lifeguard would not let him enter. After pressure from the coach, the lifeguard made everyone else get out of the pool, and he placed Al on a float, while everyone watched him be led around one lap. The whole time, the lifeguard said, “whatever you do, don’t touch the water.” Al was deeply affected by that event, but he did not let it deter him. He eventually became an award-winning and prolific painter, and he was the first, full-time African-American faculty member at Youngstown State University, having founded the Africana Studies Department, there.

Al Bright w/his Little League Team Photo

Al Bright Painting

1964 saw President Lyndon B. Johnson sign The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which technically ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

President Johnson Signs The Civil Rights Act 1964

However, the reality was quite different. Just three weeks before, on June 11, 1964, after being requested to leave its secluded restaurant, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for infringement at Monson Motor Lodge, in St. Augustine, Florida.

Mimi Jones Having Acid Poured on Her at The Monson Motor Lodge

This caused White ‘inclusionist’ motel guests to organize a swim-in / wade-in, by inviting their friends and other Black motel guests to join them in the pool. In an attempt to make them leave the pool, The Monson Motor Lodge’s manager, Jimmy Brock, poured acid into the pool. Thankfully, the one bottle of acid was quickly diluted, and did not burn the swimmers. They stayed, but the police eventually hauled them out of the pool and took them to jail. Because the media had been alerted to the wade-in, and captured the famous images, some say that when President Johnson saw the images, it ended the 83-day filibuster on the Civil Rights Act, causing him to sign it a few days later. Listen to this 2-minute NPR interview about the incident.

Friends JT Johnson & Al Lingo Years after the Monson Motor Lodge Wade-In

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, there were reports all over the country of White people not wanting Black people to ‘pollute’ their pools, and they would throw nails and broken glass to keep them out; and in some cases, would drain the pools and refill them with fresh water. Public pools did not hold the exclusive rights to this prejudice. The same bigoted persecution was happening at many beaches, in the U.S., and in 1959, a Black doctor named Gilbert R. Mason Sr., and 7 other people, had had enough. Reminiscent of the sit-ins, they waded into the Gulf of Mexico, in Biloxi, Mississippi, to prove a point, and to literally and figuratively test the waters. Dr. Mason knew that the beach was owned and run by Harrison County, and he and his friends were taxpayers, which meant that they legally had the right to use the beach. Local, White officials saw differently and used every excuse and loophole to continue to chase Dr. Mason and his growing group of peaceful protesters away from the beaches. After countless wade-ins, and many court cases, it took 9 years, until 1968, to integrate the Biloxi Beaches.

Dr. Gilbert Mason, Sr. at a Wade-In

NAACP Regional President and business owner, Eula Johnson, led planned wade-ins, along with fellow activist, Dr. Von D. Mizell, at a Fort Lauderdale Beach during the summer of 1961, even when the Ku Klux Klan threatened them. They loaded some teenagers in their cars and they drove them to the beach. When they started wading into the beach, White people started to crowd around them, but they kept wading, and the crowd parted. No one was arrested that day. A local, political newspaper publisher heard about the wade-in, who called her and asked her to stop because he said that “White people did not want to swim with the Colored people, and that he would pay her money and give her access to things other Colored people did not have, if she would cease the wade-ins. Mrs. Johnson did not back down. After many wade-ins, and despite increased police and Ku Klux Klan presence, the peaceful protesters won their fight. Decades later, in 2016, Broward County’s Colored beach during Segregation – John U. Lloyd State Park – was renamed for Eula Johnson and Dr. Von D. Mizell.

Mrs. Eula Johnson

NOT JUST IN THE SOUTH

Wade-ins were not just necessary in the South. In the Summer of 1960, Chicago, Rainbow Beach saw an African-American policeman and his family, beaten by a White mob, when they tried to use the beach – screaming at them, “Why do you come down here? Can’t you see that you’re not wanted?” A few weeks later, 21-year-old African-American NAACP volunteer, Velma Murphy Hill, led a group of young Black and White people for a wade-in, singing “We Shall Overcome.” The angry mob pelted them with rocks, and Ms. Hill needed 17 stitches in her head. By the next Summer, more activists had assembled, and week after week, they were led by their determination. By the end of the Summer of 1961, Rainbow Beach became integrated.

Rainbow Beach Wade-In

Even in my birth State of Connecticut, Black people were sometimes banned from beaches. Ned Coll, a White Connecticut resident, quit his insurance job in 1964 and founded Revitalization Corps, a volunteer-driven organization that provided tutoring, employment, mentorship and subsidies for residents of the urban areas of Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Coll opened a branch in Harlem, New York, and the concept soon spread to other cities, with more chapters being opened. In addition to helping underserved communities with day-to-day needs, Mr. Coll used Revitalization Corps to confront what he saw as the complacency of White America – the people he contemptuously referred to as “armchair liberals.” Mr. Coll thought that it was reprehensible that Black and Hispanic people were discouraged from using New England’s beaches, so he would organize bus trips for African-American and Latino children to the Southern Connecticut Shore Beach, such as Old Saybrook, Old Lyme, Madison, and Greenwich, as well as places in Massachusetts. They were met with less violence than in the South, but still very much treated with derision; and one of the cottages that they had rented, in Old Lyme, was burned down, to drive them away. The parents and volunteers persisted and focused on the children having fun. Over decades, lawsuits and perseverance ensured that the beaches were open. However, even to this day, many of the nicest beaches, in Southern Connecticut, employ high parking fees, for non-residents, in order to remain exclusive, and largely White.

Ned Coll Talking to Police

A Peaceful Protest in Old Saybrook, Connecticut

So that is the history of the swim-in and wade-ins, that I have tried to visually summarize for you. Watch a video a compilation, with actual footage from these events.

The Struggle Continues

Sadly, not all persecution stopped happening as late as the 1970s. One occurrence stands out, but there are definitely, many more: In June 2018, Stephanie Sebby-Strempel, who is White, told 15-year-old, DJ Simmons, who is African-American, that he didn't belong at a Summerville, South Carolina pool, and that he should leave, although he was doing nothing wrong. She actually struck him, and it was caught on video. After being arrested, she pleaded guilty, had to pay a $1,000 fine, and was fired from her job. Watch the media coverage here.

BLACK BEACH RESORTS

UPDATED - MAY 15, 2021

Although, wade-ins were necessary, just like when we have created Historically Black Colleges and Universities, social groups & pan-Hellenic organizations, we created our own beach enclaves, where we were not only welcomed, but we also thrived. There were, and are, several, predominantly Black beach resort towns that date back decades and decades. These include (but, not an exhaustive list): American Beach (Amelia Island, Florida); Bruce’s Beach (Manhattan Beach, California); Chicken Bone Beach (Atlantic City, New Jersey); Freeman Beach, (Wilmington, NC); Idlewild Beach (Idlewild, Michigan); Highland Beach (Highland Beach, Maryland) ; Ink Well Beach (Santa Monica, California); Oak Bluffs (Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts); Sag Harbor (Long Island, New York); St. Andrews Beach (Jekyll Island, Georgia).

In these communities, African-American families not only felt safe, but they felt free, and had fun, and did all the things that one would expect during the Summer Holidays: swimming, frolicking, reading, dozing, making sandcastles, licking ice cream, having picnics, and laughing…lots of laughing. 

St. Andrews Beach is one island over from where I live. It is still a favorite tourist spot, on Jekyll Island, and was the only beach for African-Americans in the entire State of Georgia, during this era, and housed the Dolphin Motor Hotel, where famous, Black entertainers performed on the Chitlin' Circuit. And in a powerful, historical twist, St. Andrews Beach, was also where one of the last, known slave ships, The Wanderer, illegally came ashore, in November 1858, with more than 400 enslaved Africans. 

Sag Harbor and Oak Bluffs are still very much the places to ‘Summer’ for middle to upper class African-Americans. It’s most definitely a scene, in which to be seen.

Oak Bluffs was a favorite of the Obama family for years, and they loved it so much, they recently purchased their own, stunning home in a neighboring town, on The Vineyard.

Barack & Michelle Obama in Oak Bluffs

The Obamas' Martha's Vineyard Home

The last time I visited there, in 2012, I had an amazing time catching up with my friend, Becky, and incidentally, with Wynton Marsalis and his band, who were staying at my hotel, and other celebrities, such as Wendell Pierce. One of my best holidays in the past decade!

Wynton, 'The Professor' & Wendell Pierce

Hangin' w/Wynton Marsalis

CLOSING THE SWIMMING GAP

So, this is where we are. Like so much of Black History, there have been some very painful periods, somewhat balanced by some glorious moments – even at the pool and the beach. Today, there are still not enough Black and Brown children who know how to swim. In 2017, USA Swimming published a report highlighting that 64% of African-American children and 45% of Latino children cannot swim, compared to 40% of White children. Non-profits, such as USA Swimming and SwimJim are working to close the gap, not only so that children of color have more access to the water, but also, so that when they do, they will be safer. Some progress has been made, as the above stats were worse 10 years ago. Also, there are competitive swim teams, for inner city youth, such as the Atlanta Dolphins, which have found much success, despite racist commentary, such as Al Campanis saying that Black people couldn’t swim because they lack buoyancy; and there have been some very notable and medal-winning, Black Olympic Swimmers – the first medal-winning female being Simone Manuel, and male being Anthony Ervin.

Anthony Ervin

Simone Manuel

On a personal level, growing up during that time, my brother and I learned to swim, at a young age, at Cornerstone Pool (now Cornerstone Aquatic Center), in West Hartford, Connecticut. I don’t recall that we were ever treated badly, but I do recall that we were rare, with our brown skin, glistening in the pool. Also, when I was young, our family often spent our Summers visiting Barkhamsted, Connecticut beaches, which, I am guessing were, if not welcoming, at least not unwelcoming, since we continued to return.

Barkhamsted Beach

Cornerstone Pool

WADE IN THE WATER

Tybee Island Juneteenth Wade-In

Near the island, where I live, I love that a wonderful, multicultural group holds an annual wade-in on Tybee Island, that commemorates Juneteeth, the actual end of slavery, in 1865. There, they sing the Negro Spiritual, “Wade in the Water." Wade in the Water is incredibly powerful. It was first published in 1901 by the Fisk (University) Jubilee Singers, and is meant to signify healing, from biblical references. Many historians also believe that it contained specific instructions for travelers and leaders on the Underground Railroad, including Harriet Tubman. Click below in the black box, to hear me sing the first verse of Wade in the Water.

Yet another journey, for African-Americans, as we continue the struggle that dates back 400 years, when some of my ancestors were dragged to these shores, for free labor, for 246 years. Whether they be micro-aggressions of someone implying that we should ‘know our place,’ to outright racist violence, with a knee on our necks, until we can no longer breathe, we will ‘just keep swimming,’ like Dory advises us, and we will sit in, wade in, walk in, kneel in, and vote in – until we no longer need to. We, and our non-Black allies, will continue to say "Black Lives Matter" until ‘ALL’ really means ‘ALL.’ Because ‘Matter’ is the minimum.

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JULY 1, 2022 ADDENDUM

Hallelujah! After almost 100 years, Bruce's Beach has just been returned to the descendants of its original owners!

Willa and Charles Bruce purchased the two lots of land for $1,225 in 1912.  For 15 years, Bruce's Beach was one of the few places where African-Americans could safely enjoy the beautiful coastline of the West Coast. However, in 1927, the KKK, bigoted realtors & residents, and Manhattan Beach government officials managed to steal the land from the Bruces, claiming that they wanted to turn the land into a public park, but it remained undeveloped for decades.   The beach is now worth an estimated $20m, and will be rented back to the county for $413,000 per year. There is also a clause in the lease agreement that will allow for the future purchase of the land for up to $20m, plus costs.

Click here to read more about this momentous occasion in the fight for reparations.

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Sources: African-American Smithsonian Museum, BBC, CBS News, Chicago Defender, CNN, Face2Face Africa, Fair Vote, Google Images, LAist, NBC, New York Times, NPR, PBS, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Savannah Now, Town & Country, USA Swimming, YouTube