It’s pool season, and there are 10 public pools in Nashville. That number used to be a lot higher. Like many Southern cities, a refusal to integrate pools led to their closure during the Civil Rights Movement. It all started on a hot summer day at Centennial Park.
Two College Students Go for a Swim
On July 18, 1961, two Black Civil Rights activists, Kwame Lillard and Matthew Walker, decided to take a swim in Centennial Park’s pool. Lillard's home served as headquarters for the Nashville Student Movement and a logistical center for the Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides. At the time, Jim Crow laws ruled Nashville, and public areas were segregated. Of the 22 Metro-run swimming pools, seven were designated for Black Americans, including the Hadley Park pool, which was closest to Lillard's home. However, the two chose to swim at Centennial Park to make a point. “The goal was to have dignity,” Lillard explained to the Bitter Southerner.
Lillard had recently graduated from Tennessee State University with an engineering degree, and Walker was finishing up his pre-med studies at Fisk. When the men arrived at the pool, the cashier told them to leave: “There are no n**** in here.” After thirty minutes of back and forth, the men decided to leave, never having gotten into the pool.
The Parks Board Reacts
Two days later, the all-white Parks Board closed every public pool in Nashville, citing financial troubles. No one believed them. Rather than integrate, the board thought it best to drain all the pools.
Public pools reopened two years later, but Centennial Park’s pool remained closed. The pool, built in 1932, was paved over and reconstructed as the Centennial Art Center in 1972.
Other pools remained closed as well, including Shelby Park’s.
Learn More
- Read Bitter Southerner’s moving interviews with Lillard, Walker, and other locals
- Watch Centennial Park Conservancy’s 2018 symposium “Wade In These Waters”
- Learn about Nashville’s lunch counter sit-ins
- Hear a local author describe three racially-motivated unsolved bombings in Nashville
- Read about Tennessee State University’s history
Do you have stories about Nashville’s closed pools? Tell me about them!
