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A great segment by Mary Carrillo on the work Cullen Jones is doing to make swim lessons more available and acceptable in the black community. Growing up in New York City, the Boys Club of New York was a great place to swim and cost almost nothing to join. Our swim team in 1963 was probably 40% black, 40% Hispanic, 20% white. I think the city had the most public swimming pools in the world. Some were pretty small and dank, but you could go swimming in a different pool every night of the week. I also remember traveling in a bus convoy in 1960 from NYC to Colorado for the Boy Scout Jamboree - in Illinois the black scouts were not allowed in an amusement park swimming pool - the park, yes; the pool, no. To their everlasting credit, our Scout leaders pulled every Scout out of the pool and out of park and had us wait by the side of the road until the buses came back for us - if one Scout couldn't swim, no one was going to swim or stay in that park. That memory alone was worth the trip.
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7/26/04
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(2 of 2)
Re: Black Community and Swimming
Nov 26, 2009 12:19 PM
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Thanks to Cullen and the everybody on trying to educate us. I tried to swim and never got it down. I hope to one day.
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3/24/08
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(1 of 2)
Black Community and Swimming
Sep 30, 2009 3:20 PM
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A great segment by Mary Carrillo on the work Cullen Jones is doing to make swim lessons more available and acceptable in the black community. Growing up in New York City, the Boys Club of New York was a great place to swim and cost almost nothing to join. Our swim team in 1963 was probably 40% black, 40% Hispanic, 20% white. I think the city had the most public swimming pools in the world. Some were pretty small and dank, but you could go swimming in a different pool every night of the week. I also remember traveling in a bus convoy in 1960 from NYC to Colorado for the Boy Scout Jamboree - in Illinois the black scouts were not allowed in an amusement park swimming pool - the park, yes; the pool, no. To their everlasting credit, our Scout leaders pulled every Scout out of the pool and out of park and had us wait by the side of the road until the buses came back for us - if one Scout couldn't swim, no one was going to swim or stay in that park. That memory alone was worth the trip.
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