On September 6, the Des Moines Register published a series of historic photos of the city’s pools. The piece was in response to upcoming municipal budget cuts due to Iowa’s new property tax laws. The impacts of the cuts are devastating: job cuts, reduced emergency services, reduced library hours, and cuts to parks and recreation. Which brings us to swimming pools.
Growing up in Des Moines, I was a pool rat.I taught swimming lessons. I swam competitively. When I was 14, I got my lifeguard certification. There were no full time spots for me that summer, but I accepted a position as a substitute lifeguard, and ended up getting to work at every pool in the city: Ashworth, Birdland, SouthTown, Teachout, and Northwest. My first year of lifeguarding, I mostly subbed at Good Park. At the time the pool was free, and visited almost exclusively by Black children.The neighborhood had a reputation for being a bit rough, the pool was small, but I loved lifeguarding at Good Park. The kids were so much fun, and I adored the mostly Black crew of lifeguards there. There weren’t jerks shooting beebees at lifeguards – that happened once when I subbed at Ashworth, where the woods offered excellent cover for troublemakers. I was giddy to take a trip down memory lane and Travel back in time with these throwback Iowa swimming pool snapshots .
I clicked the link. I scrolled. And scrolled. And scrolled some more. Something seemed off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something was missing. SomeONES were missing. I continued scrolling until I hit the 21st photo in the series and finally saw some shiny, happy Black faces enjoying Good Park Pool.
The history is the history. The photos are the photos. And I realized that this photo series was also documenting the history of segregated swimming pools in Des Moines.
While segregated swimming pools are no longer legal, they are, unfortunately, the defacto norm in many cities, including Des Moines. It was jarring to see white families enjoy a tremendous variety of swimming facilities across the metro while Black families had one spot (Good Park), and Asian and Latinx people are completly missing from this history. Good Park Pool was decommissioned in the late 1990s. I don’t recall the details, it was probably due to budget cuts.
While everyone will be impacted by municipal cuts across the state, the harm won’t be spread equally throughout the community. Wealthier citizens will still have access to swimming pools and other services, while access for poorer communities will continue to be reduced. This is not nostalgic. This is not progress.
Des Moines Register File Photo: “The new Good Park pool, closed most of the previous week while workmen repaired leaks, was reopened to swimmers Saturday, July 11, 1936. Shown are Ella Sanders, left; Adelyne Wilson, center, and Annabelle Payne among the early swimmers.”
The DMR article mentioned an altercation between residents and the police at Good Park
The DMR article mentioned an altercation between the police and neighborhood residents at Good Park on July 4, 1966 without giving the cause. Even white people like me who lived in Des Moines in that decade know the context: institutionalized racism and the violence needed to maintain it. There’s a fascinating article in “Annals of Iowa” that mentions Good Park, the conflict there, and the context. I’ll post the link, but if that doesn’t take, it’s the winter 2019 issue, number 69. The article’s titled “North Side Revolutionaries in the Civil Rights Struggle: The African American Community in Des Moines and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, 1948–1970” by Bruce Fehn and Robert Jefferson. Thanks so much for highlighting this history!