Race/Related: ‘Swimming Wasn’t for Us’

Black children are far more likely than white children to report low or no swimming ability, a disparity that underlies other, grimmer statistics.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story July 9, 2022 Nile Swim Club lifeguard and swim instructor Tujuanna Jackson showing children how to float and hold their breath.Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times Helping to Close a Dangerous Racial Gap By Campbell Robertson Photographs by Rachel Wisniewski YEADON, Pa. — On a hot summer afternoon in 1959, hundreds of Black families in this little town just outside Philadelphia gathered on Union Avenue to cool off and make some history. Only two years had passed since three of the families had been refused membership by the whites-only swim club in town, a rejection that set off a bustle of kitchen table meetings and door-to-door fund-raising. Now on this mid-July afternoon, the Nile Swim Club was celebrating its grand opening: the first Black-owned private swim club in the country. After the speeches, the board members waded into the new pool, and after what Bill Mellix, who was 13 at the time, remembers as an interminable few minutes of waiting, the children were invited to join them. They laughed, splashed and reveled in their achievement. But there was one thing that most of them did not do. "None us knew how to swim," Mr. Mellix said. The mere existence of the Nile Swim Club was a strike against the bigoted history of recreational swimming in the United States. But there are legacies of that history that run deeper than racist membership policies — legacies that the Nile is now trying to remedy one swimmer at a time. To this day, Black children are far more likely than white children to report low or no swimming ability, a disparity that underlies other, grimmer statistics. Black people drown at a rate 50 percent higher than that of white people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In swimming pools in particular, the drowning rate for Black children ages 10-14 is nearly eight times that of white children of the same age. The disparities are only reinforced by their tragic consequences. "My mother's sister drowned when she was 17," said Victoria Pearsall, sitting in the poolside shade at the Nile, recalling how the shock of her aunt's death reverberated across generations in her family. "That made a cycle of kids not knowing how to swim." Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Around a long-abandoned underground swimming pool at Philadelphia's Fairmount Water Works, an exhibition called "Pool: A Social History of Segregation," explains how vicious cycles like this began. From the country's earliest days, swimming was an activity curbed and constrained by racism, brutally punished by slave owners who saw it as an avenue to freedom. But in the late nineteenth century, some big Northern cities, with Philadelphia leading the way, began building city pools in a burst of Victorian civic-mindedness, viewing them as public baths for the working class. Will Coleman, a water safety instructor with Philadelphia's Parks and Recreation department, helping a patron of the John B. Kelly Pool in Philadelphia.Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times These pools "reinforced class and gender divisions but not racial distinctions," wrote Jeff Wiltse in his book "Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America." Poor and working-class boys, Black and white, crowded into city pools on hot summer days, while women and members of the middle-class swam at different times or in different pools, if at all. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT This changed by the 1920s, as an appetite for exercise facilities had taken hold among the well-off. Women and men started swimming together, and bathing suits alluringly shrank. In direct reaction to the mixing of genders, racial segregation became the rule, enforced, if not by law then by violence. From this point, the history of swimming pools unfolds like so many other social spaces in America. As Black people began challenging pool segregation and winning in court, white people began deserting public pools altogether. Cities closed pools rather than accept integration, and private pools boomed in white backyards across the country. Urban swimming opportunities have waxed and waned ever since, at the mercy of funding and municipal attention. Over the past couple of years, a nationwide lifeguard shortage has forced many urban pools to close or to open without adequate staffing, including more than a dozen that were shut down in Philadelphia this summer. For many Black people growing up in past decades in Philadelphia, even though it boasts the highest number of swimming pools per capita of any major city, learning how to swim was almost a matter of luck: whether you lived near a city pool, whether there were instructors there, whether your family encouraged it. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT "If you didn't have the stuff to go to swimming in, like swimsuits and trunks and things like that, you weren't allowed in," said Lynn Ruff, 58, who was one of the few in her circle of friends who learned to swim as a child. A lot of people she knew just figured "swimming wasn't for us." Ms. Ruff is now a lifeguard and instructor herself, taking on the job after being laid off from a bank in her mid-40s. A grandmother of five, she insists that everyone should — and anyone can — learn to swim. In the off-season, she teaches swimming at a school for the blind. Among the adults sitting around the pool at the Nile Swim Club, it was not hard to find skepticism about the claim that anyone could learn. Ms. Pearsall, for her part, said she had no plans to start swimming at this point. But as she talked, she watched James, her 10-year-old son who was in the water, breaking the family cycle. "Kick, kick, kick, kick, kick, kick!" shouted André Kenneth Andrews, a bald and goateed 69-year-old retiree who spends his mornings exhorting scores of girls and boys into becoming swimmers. "I'm not kidding, you kick them feet!" In 2019, board members at the Nile Swim Club began talking about the racial disparities in swimming ability and what they could do about them. They saw the main obstacles as money, time and a feeling of comfort that was crucial before the anxiety of the lessons themselves. Read the rest of the story here. EDITORS' PICKS We publish many articles that touch on race. Here are several you shouldn't miss. 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The Morning: Summer travel, made easy

Wonder within 100 miles of home.

View in browser|nytimes.com July 9, 2022 By Melissa Kirsch Good morning. You need not travel far to experience the delights of summer. Rosie Barker Close to home A friend texted me last weekend from a departure lounge in Kennedy Airport. "Um three hours and counting …" she wrote of her L.A.-bound flight's delay. She'd been expecting it, given the scheduling snarls and trip cancellations that have plagued travelers lately. But the reality was frustrating nonetheless: precious hours of a long-awaited vacation spent browsing trail mix selections in Hudson News, searching the terminal for a charging station. I congratulated myself for not planning a big trip over the holiday, opting for the beach close to home. I used an app to find the cheapest gas I could, and packed lunch instead of buying it. It wasn't a far-flung adventure, but it was easy and enjoyable nonetheless. If you find yourself grounded by air travel complications or loath to venture too far from home because of the price of gasoline or unpredictable variants, you still have options. My colleagues on the Travel desk have recommendations for some pretty excellent trips within 100 miles of major cities. In Bellingham, Wash., 90 miles from Seattle, one can spend a few days hiking, biking and feasting on oysters. Outside Atlanta, a weekend of wine tasting in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains beckons. There are hidden spots in Chicagoland's suburbs that are perfect for camping. In Ojai, "an electromagnetic vortex of good energy" 80 miles from Los Angeles, you'll find otherworldly sunsets and the world's largest outdoor bookstore. In Brooklyn, where I live, $2.75 will get you a ticket on NYC Ferry, whose six daily routes service all five boroughs and, through Sept. 11, Governors Island (where you can glamp overnight, if you'd like). Earlier in the pandemic, I wrote a newsletter for The Times about how to lead a full and cultured life at home, or close to it. I'd thought that, as pandemic restrictions eased, there'd be less need for such counsel, and dreamed that the world would fling open its gates and all of us, too-long cooped-up, would come cartwheeling through. Continuing complications hadn't figured into the fantasy. Something I realized, thinking and writing for a year and a half about what to do while you're at home, is that these activities don't have to be consolation prizes. There's as much wonder and delight to be found nearby as there is at the other end of a long plane trip. You don't have to look far to find it. Last weekend, at the beach, I watched a bunch of children stand agape as four laughing gulls hovered a few feet above them for what felt like minutes. A group of friends downed tequila shots then cranked up Beyoncé's "Break My Soul" and danced. The air was warm but it was breezy. 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How could a prequel (not even a sequel, a prequel!) to one of the most gripping and addictive shows of the modern era feel like anything but a cynical attempt to keep the "Breaking Bad" product on the streets. But as "Saul" begins its final six-episode run, it's a pleasure to admit that the series has carved out its own unique space in the TV pantheon. 🎧 "Love, Damini," Burna Boy (Out now): New backyard barbecue music alert! On the sixth album from the Nigerian superstar and purveyor of Afrofusion, the "surfaces are glossy and reassuring," our pop critic Jon Pareles writes, and "the inner workings are slyly playful." 🍿 "Where the Crawdads Sing" (July 15): Daisy Edgar-Jones, of Hulu's "Normal People" (that's the one about sexy, sad young Irish people) stars in another book adaptation. The 2018 novel "Crawdads" is, as we wrote, a "combination of murder mystery, lush nature writing, romance and a coming-of-age survival story." 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GAME OF THE WEEKEND Ons Jabeur in her semifinal match on Thursday.Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images Ons Jabeur vs. Elena Rybakina, Wimbledon final: Jabeur, a native of Tunisia, is the first Arab or African woman to reach a Grand Slam singles final in the modern era. Like Roger Federer, to whom she has long been compared, Jabeur excels at a range of shots: approaches, overhead smashes, deft drop volleys. Her opponent, Elena Rybakina, was born in Moscow but a few years ago switched her home country to Kazakhstan — which has allowed her to get around Wimbledon's ban on Russian athletes, imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. 9 a.m. Eastern today, ESPN. For more: In the men's final tomorrow, Nick Kyrgios of Australia will try for his first Grand Slam title against the six-time Wimbledon champ Novak Djokovic. NOW TIME TO PLAY The pangram from yesterday's Spelling Bee was analyzing. Here is today's puzzle. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week's headlines. Here's today's Wordle. After, use our bot to get better. Before You Go … Don't miss Usher's Tiny Desk Concert. Read a profile of the comedian Nathan Fielder ahead of the premiere of his new show. If you're looking for a true-crime page-turner, I recommend "We Keep the Dead Close," by Becky Cooper. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa Claire Moses, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Ashley Wu contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. 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