In Jim Crow South, black people were denied vanilla ice cream, except on 4th of July

[LuvNewcastle]

3. Black people weren't allowed to go swimming in a lot of areas.

Most conversations about black people's relatively poor swimming skills begin and end with the assumption that it's all black people's fault. For example, there are swimming pools and beaches all around this area, so if black people don't swim as well - so the thinking goes - it must be because black people don't want to know.

But what if there is a more sinister reason to black people's unfamiliarity with the water? What if it's as simple as the long history of black people being kept out of otherwise public pools and beaches?

In a blog post this week at grist.org, environment writer Brentin Mock describes the swimming pool as one of America's most racist institutions. Mock, who lived here between 2009 and 2013, opens his piece in 1930s New Orleans. The city was considering letting black people swim at the intersection of the Industrial Canal and Lake Pontchartrain. But white people protested - "rioted" is the word Mock uses - to keep black swimmers out.

http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2014/05/a_history_behind_black_people.html