WEBVTT - It Was Once Illegal for Black People to Swim

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<v Speaker 1>Well, right now it is time for our way Black

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<v Speaker 1>History fact and today's way Black History Fact comes from

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<v Speaker 1>NPS dot gov, that is the National Park Service. This

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<v Speaker 1>is the history of segregation in the United States and

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<v Speaker 1>how it extended into the oceans. All right, it's all share.

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<v Speaker 1>We all love spending a warm day on a beautiful beach. However,

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<v Speaker 1>there was a time when public beaches were not open

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<v Speaker 1>to all to enjoy. Public beaches, like many other public

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<v Speaker 1>facilities such as schools, swimming pool theaters, and restaurants, were segregated.

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<v Speaker 1>The segregation came in the form of local and state laws,

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<v Speaker 1>as well as understood social norms. Collectively, these laws and

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<v Speaker 1>social norms were known as Jim Crow in many places

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<v Speaker 1>along the Gulf Coast. The rest the request by African

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<v Speaker 1>Americans for access to public beaches often fell on deaf ears.

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<v Speaker 1>Without access to public beaches, many were denied the joy

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<v Speaker 1>and safety of swimming and playing at public beaches. Many

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<v Speaker 1>Black children drowned as they swam in unsafe and unsupervised

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<v Speaker 1>bodies of water. In areas where African Americans were allowed

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<v Speaker 1>to access public beaches, most were very remote, polluted, and

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<v Speaker 1>hazardous areas. A rare exception to this was the eastern

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<v Speaker 1>end of Perdido Key, which is preserved by the National

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<v Speaker 1>Seashore today as Johnson Beach. Similar to peaceful protests at

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<v Speaker 1>restaurants known as sit ins, doctor Gilbert Mason Senior led

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<v Speaker 1>a series of protests against segregated beaches called weade ins.

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<v Speaker 1>He believed all Americans should have equal access to public

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<v Speaker 1>beaches maintained with taxpayer dollars. For these wade in protests,

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<v Speaker 1>Mason and his followers would wide into the Gulf waters

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<v Speaker 1>of Biloxi, Mississippi beaches. Those peaceful protesters were met in

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<v Speaker 1>many cases with violence from white rioters, and many were

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<v Speaker 1>also arrested. The Justice Department finally won a lengthy battle

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<v Speaker 1>over these segregated beaches in Mississippi in nineteen sixty eight.

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<v Speaker 1>The hard fought battle resulted in public beaches being open

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<v Speaker 1>to all, regardless of color. Wade in style protests, like

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<v Speaker 1>the ones in Mississippi occurred in other parts of the

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<v Speaker 1>country as well. These protests provided a way for black

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<v Speaker 1>Americans to speak out against segregated beaches. The efforts of

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<v Speaker 1>these brave advocates for change ensured the public beaches are

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<v Speaker 1>open and accessible to all Americans to enjoy. Okay, now

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<v Speaker 1>I'm going to shift gears here because that seems like

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<v Speaker 1>a neat little story, happy ending or whatever. But I

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<v Speaker 1>want to give you a little bit more insights, so

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<v Speaker 1>I'm going to share a bit. This is from the Guardian. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>summers have long been America's most segregated season. Nowhere is

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<v Speaker 1>this more evident than along the nation's beaches and coasts,

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<v Speaker 1>one of the chief destinations for vacationers and pleasure seekers,

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<v Speaker 1>and a perennial site of racial conflict and violence. The

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<v Speaker 1>infamous nineteen nineteen Chicago race riot, which lasted seven days

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<v Speaker 1>and claimed thirty eight lives, began on the shores of

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<v Speaker 1>Lake Michigan, when white Youth gang members stoned to death

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<v Speaker 1>a black teenager named Eugene Williams after he had accidentally

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<v Speaker 1>drifted across a color line in the water. And its aftermath,

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<v Speaker 1>African Americans learned to avoid the city's lakefront. As a child,

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<v Speaker 1>black Chicago and Dempsey Travis remembers quote, I was never

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<v Speaker 1>permitted to learn to swim. For six years, we lived

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<v Speaker 1>within two blocks of the lake, but that did not

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<v Speaker 1>change my parents' attitude to Dad and Mama the Blue

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<v Speaker 1>Scott the Blue Lake always had a tinge of red

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<v Speaker 1>from the blood of the young black boy. In the

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<v Speaker 1>decades that followed, local governments across the US and acted

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<v Speaker 1>a host of policies and practices designed to segregate places

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<v Speaker 1>of outdoor leisure by race and effectively exclude people of

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<v Speaker 1>color from public beaches. In the South, those methods were

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<v Speaker 1>quite explicit. Coastal cities such as Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina,

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<v Speaker 1>and Miami, Florida prohibited African Americans from stepping foot on

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<v Speaker 1>any of their public beaches and for years ignored black's

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<v Speaker 1>demands for public beaches of their own. White's indifference to

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<v Speaker 1>the health and humanity of black communities often had deadly consequences.

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<v Speaker 1>Throughout the Jim Crow era, shockingly high numbers of black

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<v Speaker 1>youth drowned each summer while playing in dangerous and unsupervised

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<v Speaker 1>bodies of water. When the white officials did respond to

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<v Speaker 1>Black demands for beaches and parks of their own, they

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<v Speaker 1>invariably selected remote, polluted, often hazardous locations. In Washington, d C.

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<v Speaker 1>Officials designated Buzzard Point, a former dumping ground located downstream

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<v Speaker 1>from a sewage plant. It has a suitable location