Discussion for article #234662
A good article. But why was Mr. Byers unwelcome at so many pools if he wasn’t African-American? Was that a typo, or did I just miss a crucial adjective somewhere?
Yikes, thanks for noticing that. It is a typo, as Mr. Byers was indeed African American. I’ll see if I can get that corrected.
Also wanted to note a great source for some of this piece, this 2004 cover article in Cville’s alternative newspaper The Hook (since renamed the Cville Weekly):
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Thanks Ben - I was born in Charlottesville in 1962 and lived there till I left for college. We lived near Ivy, my father was a professor and research scientist at the medical school, and I remember some of the tense times as desegregation took hold. As a child I recall asking my mother if it would be OK to bring one of my African American friends to our pool. She got a funny look and said, “no” but looked pained to have to say that. When I pressed her she told me that, “black people weren’t allowed there” so I told her I would not be going back any more.
I’m not writing that to demonstrate any moral superiority over my mother’s generation but to acknowledge that you and I were born at a time when the culture was shifting when it came too race relations. As a teenager I did farm work in the summers and there was still a racial divide among the field hands. You could see and feel the tolerance divide between the old, rural South and the university community. In many ways the latest incident on “the corner” shows that the divide remains.
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Atlanta, which has an undeserved rep as having been “moderate” on race closed its swimming pools in the late 50s and early 60s (as did its suburbs). When I moved there in the 90s, I was struck at the lack of places to swim in a place where even the lifelong residents find summer to be miserable.
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Have to share this story I just found on Mr. Byers’ retirement last fall (!):
http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlines/Charlottesville-Swim-Teacher-Retires-280589412.html