Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Above, Simone Manuel prepares for the 100 meters freestyle in the 2015 FINA World Aquatic Championships in Kazan, Russia. Manuel is featured in "POOL: A Social History of Segregation."
By Emily Tarinelli ’25
Staff Writer
For Cheryl Anderson Chaney, swimming at Fairmount Water Works Pool in Philadelphia was a source of joy. As a teenager growing up in the 1960s, she learned to swim from her father, who worked for the water department, according to an article published by WHYY PBS. Chaney, who is Black, grew up during racial segregation, when restrictive laws made it challenging for communities of color to access adequate public services — including swimming pools.
Chaney’s early experiences with swimming were defined by working around these limitations. “You had to come back home and shower and wash your hair, and my hair was long,” she told WHYY PBS, recalling that cleaning her hair often became a “chore for [her] grandmother.” Despite the work that came with regular trips to a public pool, Chaney maintained her love for the water. Now, the same pool Chaney swam in is the location of a new museum exhibition called “POOL: A Social History of Segregation.”
“POOL” is scheduled to open for in-person visitations on March 22, 2022 after its grand opening in September was delayed due to damage created by Tropical Storm Ida. According to “POOL’s” website, the exhibit unites “history, site-specific artwork, storytelling, scholarship and place-based learning” to “illuminate a history of segregated swimming in America, and its connection to present-day drowning issues affecting Black communities.” It was curated by Victoria Prizzia and funded by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and the Philadelphia Water Department.
Karen Young, the Executive Director at Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, discussed what made the pool exhibition special in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s the power of place,” she said. “[This place] has a pool that stands out in history as one of the first pools … that served everyone, without question. White families, families of color, swimmers that were competitive, swimmers that were just learning how to swim — it served everyone.”
The exhibition spans 4,700 square feet and consists of “an immersive blend of interactive media, site-specific artworks, arresting graphics and powerful stories,” according to the “POOL” website. Upon entering the space, viewers will be introduced to the digital artwork “Contemporary Voices,” a series of video and audio vignettes featuring the voices of artists, aquatic activists, researchers, scholars and prominent Black swimmers as they discuss how swimming impacted their lives. The presentation, which will be projected onto the floor, will allow viewers to take their seats around the installation, imitating the experience of looking into a pool. The work’s notable voices include Martiza Correia McClendon, the first Black woman to win an Olympic medal on a relay team (2004), Cullen Jones, the first Black American to set a world record in swimming (2006) and Simone Manuel, the first Black swimmer in Olympic history to win a gold medal in an individual event (2016).
“I’m humbled to be part of the exhibition,” Manuel wrote in a Nov. 12 Instagram post. “As someone who is committed to reducing the drowning rate in the Black community, I’ve always felt it was important that all people be educated on the entire history of swimming and on the unfortunate injustices Black people faced in and around pools.”
One of the video profiles in “Contemporary Voices” features Jim Ellis, a Philadelphia swim coach who was the subject of the 2007 biographical film, “Pride.” Ellis was the founder of PDR, the city’s first Black competitive swim team. The team’s initials formally stood for Philadelphia Department of Recreation, but Ellis referred to them as “Pride, Determination and Resilience.” His team boasted numerous swimming champions, including Michael Norment, the first Black swimmer to join the U.S. national team.
“It was my way of finding a way to make a difference,” Ellis told WHYY PBS. “We were protesting in the ’60s and ’70s, it was a big movement of finding something to do to help African Americans in this country. My contribution was through swimming.”
Featured artists include Homer Jackson, Cathleen Dean, Calo Rosa, Azikiwe Mohammed, Lowell Boston, Modupeola Fadugba, Ed Accura, Liz Corman and Aubrie Costello. According to the “POOL” website, the artists’ work “springs from the historical context to expand the depth and breadth of ‘POOL,’ while providing multiple — and sometimes unexpected — lenses to reconsider swimming all together.”
In addition to “Contemporary Voices,” several other historical and artistic media span the space of Fairmount Water Works Pool. According to Black Enterprise, “a historical timeline that stretches along the pool room’s exhibit wall explains that in the early 20th century, public pools were open to all races and were segregated by gender.” However, it continued, “once it became a realization that Black men and white women might share the same water, it made way for racial segregation.”
The exhibit is grounded in historic and contextual information, but is dominated mostly by multimedia artwork. One video, “Reflection Pool” by Liz Corman, showcases the joy found in artistic swimming by teenage synchronized swimmers, Rachel and Brianna Holmes. Like “Contemporary Voices,” the video is played on a monitor that is arranged horizontally on the ground, giving the viewer the implied experience of peering into the water of a pool. Another work, “Two Lifeguards” by Azikiwe Mohammed, arranges two Black sculptural figures at the ends of one of the pool’s swimming lanes. Light pours onto the figures from above and casts luminous ripples on the surface of the water.
Victoria Prizzia, the white lead designer of “POOL” discussed her inspiration for the exhibit in an interview with Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Elizabeth Wellington. “I wanted to think about my relationship with water and this idea that a segment of the population was excluded from something that gave me so much joy,” she said.
Wellington, a Black woman, asked Prizzia in their interview, “Could a white woman effectively tell the story of Black pain through such a privileged lens? Should she?”
“The project is a platform to amplify voices of those that aren’t heard,” Prizzia responded. “As a white woman, (I know) they don’t have to talk to me. But they did and it was time well spent. I feel like the voices represented in “POOL” are voices we should all hear more of.”
Fairmount Water Works’ profile of “POOL” listed national statistics examining the intersection of race and swimming. According to a 2014 report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Black children and teenagers are almost six times as likely as white children to drown in a swimming pool.” Additionally, a 2010 study conducted by USA Swimming reported that “69 percent of Black children have little to no swimming ability, compared with 42 percent of white children.”
“Racial discrimination at swimming pools, coupled with a general shift of funds away from public pools to private clubs and recreational opportunities, have had a significant and lasting impact on Black communities — an impact that continues today,” according to Fairmount Water Works’ profile of “POOL.”
Discussing the exhibition, Manuel concluded, “‘[POOL]’ celebrates the waves we have overcome, but more importantly, it educates and shows all of us how to be a part of the solution.”