The Pool Is Closed: Segregation, Summertime, and the Search for a Place to Swim

“The Pool Is Closed: Segregation, Summertime, and the Search for a Place to Swim” is a book about how children learn to swim and grow into adults who enjoy swimming—and why this can be difficult for urban children today. Reason: There are not enough public swimming pools. As you’ll learn, there once were more public venues. At a point, swimming became privatized.

Hannah S. Palmer is a writer who lives in the Atlanta area.

The big ideas for Urban Atlanta:

• Public swimming pools can bring people together. In this, they are like other public places, such as parks and trails.
• Pools are particularly important for children. It’s where they can learn to swim, but it also introduces them to many kinds of people in an environment that encourages play.
• In the spectrum of public places, swimming pools are the most intimate because people are more exposed in swimsuits. This can be an equalizer; you see all kinds of people and many body types. But it makes some adults feel vulnerable, which explains some of the fraught history around public pools.
• The book’s secondary theme about how cities need water and why humans are drawn to it offers a good reason for uncovering our hidden streams. These can also be great public places. 
• The book reminds us that, to make progress, we must face mistakes made in the past. The racism that closed many public swimming venues in the 1960s is an example of what we must understand before we can move forward.