The temperature soared into the 90s on Aug. 3, the last day to cool off in one of Savannah’s public pools before school started.
Dozens of brown-skinned young people, mostly in their teens on down, took advantage of the free pools — splashing, dunking, diving and laughing — before their summer vacation came to an end.
At Daffin Park’s pool, only one white girl, maybe 12 or 13 years old, joined in the revelry. She wasn’t interested in talking about racial relations; she was just getting in the pool with her friends.
The trend was similar at the city’s seven other pools on Aug. 3, where the dozens of pool users were black, aside from one white teen at the pool on Goebel Avenue in the Twickenham neighborhood.
The predominance of blacks at the Daffin pool was a reversal of the ‘50s into the early ‘60s when the pool was reserved for whites only. Built in 1954, the original Daffin pool was the first public concrete pool with a water filtering system in Savannah.
Blacks had to use the Tompkins pool, which had a sandy bottom, said Bernard Lewis, who started out working as a life guard for the city around 1962 and retired as the pool manager in 2000, in addition to working as a coach for the Savannah-Chatham school system.
Lewis, who is a light skinned African-American, said white families back then used to ask him to give their children swim lessons because they didn’t think he was black.
City pools, along with other facilities, were desegregated in October 1963, eight months ahead of the National Civil Rights Act, according to city archives.
Pools remained segregated to a point, due to the communities in which they were located, said Ed Jinks, a former coach for the Savannah-Chatham school system who also worked as a pool manager from 1963 to 1989. Together, he and Lewis were known as Salt and Pepper, according to Lewis.
Whites used to swim at the Jenkins, Shuman and Daffin pools, Jinks said, but as white communities began getting private pools, those pools eventually came to be used primarily by blacks, too.
Lewis said some whites were scared of the blacks from some of the rougher neighborhoods who began frequenting once-white pools, such as Daffin. At the same time, some white lifeguards got along fine and were adopted as “honorary blacks,” he said.
Jackie Dixon, who has taken over as the city’s swimming pool manager, said she would love for pools users to be more diverse. That’s one reason the city started a water aerobics program, which has had some success in drawing more whites, Dixon said.
One thing the city needs to do a better job of is promoting their nine pools, which are free to use, Dixon said.
“You would be surprised how many people don’t know we have a pool,” she said.
In addition to pools, the city’s camps and football leagues are primarily used by blacks, said Barry Baker, director of the Parks and Recreation Services Department. However, there are city programs with mostly white participants, such as baseball, tennis and softball, Baker said.
“We have facilities all over the city, he said. “Depending on whatever area that is, they might have a certain interest.”
Shannon Brewton, a 19-year-old Tompkins lifeguard, said there had been about four white regulars at the pool that summer, when the number of people swimming topped 75 on some days.
Brewton said she assumed the racial disparity was due to the fact that the surrounding communities were mostly comprised of black residents.
But that black majority doesn’t extend to all of the neighborhoods where the pools are located.
Out of the nine city pools, six are located in areas with majority black populations. The pools at Daffin Park, the Thomas Square neighborhood, and on DeRenne Avenue are located in mostly white communities.
In Daffin, whites accounted for 83 percent of the 629 residents in the area, based on 2010 US Census numbers.
Daffin lifeguard Shamikah White, 22, said income disparities could play a role in the lack of whites. A lot of whites don’t know the pool doesn’t cost anything, while blacks are more in tune with available free activities, White said.
“These kids know from a young age,” she said.
Baker also said income inequalities could play a role, stating that many white parents pay for their children to join private swim teams that practice at the Chatham County Aquatic Center.
Lewis and Jinks said many whites live in private subdivisions with their own pools, such as the Mayfair community that is not far from the Jenkins pool.
Income disparities
Claims of income disparities are not unfounded.
In Savannah, blacks had a per capita income of $13,353, while whites’ per capita income was $25,770, according to a 2011 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. The median household income that same year for blacks was $28,209, about $20,000 less than that of white households.
That income gap means public pools are the only option for some blacks, while a greater percentage of the white population has other choices.
About 18 percent of Savannah’s black households, compared to 8 percent of white ones, had no personal vehicle, according to a 2005 census survey, the most recent available with such statistics.
The racial makeup in Daffin Park is more mixed outside the pool, where whites and blacks take advantage of the park’s walking path and athletic fields.
Justin Montan, 19, was shooting hoops by himself Monday morning at the park’s basketball courts. Montan, who is white, said about 80 percent of those who play on the court are black.
Everybody gets along, although they sometimes trade friendly barbs regarding their race during a game, he said.
At the park’s playground, area resident John Adams, who is white, was enjoying a sunny morning on Monday with his two-year-old son. He has never brought his son to the Daffin pool because the young boy’s grandmother has one on Wilmington Island, Adams said, but he would be willing to try it next summer.
He said it was good for a community when people of all races and backgrounds interact with one another, especially when they are young.
“They are the same people,” he said. “I grew up like that.”
This article is the first of a series of occasional stories examining race in Savannah. The series will focus on aspects of the city that remain divided, for whatever reason, 50 years after desegregation. When it comes to recreational activities, religious institutions, schools, jobs and communities, segregation may be gone, but separation appears to live on.