![]() White people were no longer allowed to have a nice thing, mainly to make sure that Black people didn’t have the same thing. McGhee’s point is that this may have hurt Black residents, but it mostly hurt everyone (at least everyone who didn’t have a private pool or swim club). ![]() When the courts overturned Jim Crow, public swimming pools were required to integrate, to allow all residents to join the melting pot.Īll across America, towns closed their pools rather than integrate. (Everywhere, not just Dixie.) The melting pot only went so far. Public pools were, of course, whites only. These venues were marvelous melting pots, bringing together many diverse Americans, including new immigrants, in a shared community. McGhee recounts the time when most towns had wonderful public swimming pools. ![]() The theme of this book is described in the chapter heading, “Racism Drained the Pool”. ![]()
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