The local pool founded to combat segregation in Baton Rouge marks 62 years of work – WBRZ

Baton Rouge -In the 30s and 40s, black people were excluded from swimming in the City Park pool, although black tax dollars gather for pool maintenance.

Now, at the beginning of the month of black history in 2025, the pastoral church of Siloch Fred Jeff Smith looks back and says that black children have found other ways to cool down on hot summer days.

“Black people were floating in rivers and ditches, others in the river. People regularly drowned in those water holes that exist, “Smith said.

In response to discrimination, the chairman of the United Net Greek Reverend Council Reverend Willie K. Brooks is leading the effort to raise money for a place for black families to swim freely in Baton Rouge.

Park Brooks, named after the pastor of the missionary Baptist Church Little Rock, was discovered in 1949 and became a safe haven for the black community.

Activists tried to integrate the City Park pool in 1963, but the pool was closed and filled.

“They were so opposed to sharing swimming facilities that the swimming facilities would be closed and filled in soon,” Smith said.

Smith said he knew the origin of Brooks Park because his father told him the story as a child. Smith said it was important to learn and share stories from the past, recognizing the stability of those who helped make a change.

“I didn’t learn this at Baton Rouge High, I didn’t learn this in LSU. I learned this because my father put me in a car and driving me around and showed me where this was and where it was and told me who was who was and who it was – Smith said.

He said it was imperative to share the stories of past struggles, not to behave like things like segregation did not happen. It is important to learn from them and move forward, he said.

“We do not want to admit where we came from, because it creates a different framework for where it is where we are trying to go,” Smith said. “You have to acknowledge the reality where we are so that we can all collectively move in the direction that we all want to go.”

He said the history of training is the key to bringing a change.

“This speaks to the resistance of blacks that they could create a way alone. We have to strive to be more than what other people say we are, “Smith said.