Help Fix Portsmouth's McKinley Pool
Donation protected
McKinley Pool, Portsmouth, Ohio’s only city-owned, public pool was built fifty-six years ago to memorialize the death of fourteen-year-old resident Eugene McKinley, who tragically drowned while swimming in a flooded sand and gravel pit in the summer of 1961.
Today, the pool is in great need of restoration and improvement. Much needed repairs have kept the pool from holding its traditional Memorial Day weekend opening.
Back in 1961, residents, white and black, immediately recognized the role of segregation in McKinley's death. His white classmates swam at the Terrace Club’s Dreamland Pool in the East End, where children were provided swimming lessons and lifeguards. McKinley and his black classmates swam in area creeks, rivers, and other dangerous pools of water. Yet, rather than integrate the private, whites-only swimming pool, city residents of both races joined together to build a new pool, one that would be "open to all.” “A place in the sun for everyone” is how the Eugene McKinley Memorial Pool was first promoted. Portsmouth, it was hoped, had a large enough population to have two swimming pools and was enlightened enough to support a new integrated one.
Three years later, in the summer of ‘64, the McKinley pool was still unfinished and the Terrace Club remained segregated, as did many pools across the nation. “Sit-ins,” “wade-ins,” and other demonstrations became a common and successful tactic employed by civil rights activists and Portsmouth's black community would play its part in this larger movement. The city’s local chapter of the NAACP would plan a nonviolent direct action to once and for all end Jim Crow in Portsmouth.
At 1 p.m., on Friday, July 17th, 1964, when the pool was packed, and everyone was enjoying the sun and water, six African-American males approached the entrance to the Terrace Club. They asked for admission and were denied. As planned, they placed their 60-cent guest membership fee on the counter, hopped over the turnbuckle, and made their way to Dreamland.
Once they entered the water, the lifeguards blew their whistles, and a pool employee went on the loudspeaker, calling on everyone to immediately clear the pool. When the protestors refused, they were threatened with arrest. Then, while everyone awaited the arrival of the police, some of the younger white swimmers, in a show of solidarity, jumped back into the pool.
A photographer with the Portsmouth Daily Times was there to catch the moment when one of the white youths reached out to shake hands with one of the protestors. The four adults -- Curt Gentry, Roy Burns, Jesse Baggette, and Charles Stanley Smith, Jr. -- were charged with trespassing, while the two juveniles were released without charges. Upon his release, Smith, who served as the president of Portsmouth’s NAACP chapter, asked the Times reporter, “We all go to school together, live together, why not swim together?”
Throughout the remainder of the summer of 1964 the Terrace Club continued to operate as a private, segregated, white-only club. Then in the spring of ‘65, the club’s board of directors, ended their ban on black members, dropped the “Terrace Club” name, and reopened as “Dreamland.” The era of Jim Crow had ended in Portsmouth. Nevertheless, a form of de facto segregation continued as Dreamland served the city’s white neighborhoods and McKinley served the formerly red-lined North End neighborhood.
The loss of manufacturing jobs in the 1970s and 80s took its toll. Residents moved away. Dreamland closed. And McKinley Pool, like many of the city’s other park facilities became neglected, much needed funds for repairs and improvements cut by a shrinking budget and tax base.
Today, McKinley Pool may not be alone in its need for restoration and community investment. But it is unique as a Portsmouth historical site, as a memorial to a young life lost due to segregation, and as a tribute to those members of the community who stood up for justice and equality, those residents, black and white, who helped bring Jim Crow to an end.
Please consider donating to the North End Project Committee, which has recently organized to improve and restore the public spaces of Portsmouth’s historic North End neighborhood. The Project is led by Thomas Bailey, a native of Portsmouth, who returned to the North End after a successful career in the US military. The Project currently functions under the umbrella of the North End Ministerial Alliance - PO Box 1802, Portsmouth, Ohio 45662.
Total costs for the restoration and improvements are estimated to be $45,000. With your help, we hope to raise half of that amount -- $22,500 -- online via this gofundme campaign.
Let’s make sure that the youth of Portsmouth have a safe public pool for swimming so that another life, like that of Eugene McKinley, is never again lost. Please donate to ensure that this memorial pool opens in time to mark this year’s anniversary.
Today, the pool is in great need of restoration and improvement. Much needed repairs have kept the pool from holding its traditional Memorial Day weekend opening.
Back in 1961, residents, white and black, immediately recognized the role of segregation in McKinley's death. His white classmates swam at the Terrace Club’s Dreamland Pool in the East End, where children were provided swimming lessons and lifeguards. McKinley and his black classmates swam in area creeks, rivers, and other dangerous pools of water. Yet, rather than integrate the private, whites-only swimming pool, city residents of both races joined together to build a new pool, one that would be "open to all.” “A place in the sun for everyone” is how the Eugene McKinley Memorial Pool was first promoted. Portsmouth, it was hoped, had a large enough population to have two swimming pools and was enlightened enough to support a new integrated one.
Three years later, in the summer of ‘64, the McKinley pool was still unfinished and the Terrace Club remained segregated, as did many pools across the nation. “Sit-ins,” “wade-ins,” and other demonstrations became a common and successful tactic employed by civil rights activists and Portsmouth's black community would play its part in this larger movement. The city’s local chapter of the NAACP would plan a nonviolent direct action to once and for all end Jim Crow in Portsmouth.
At 1 p.m., on Friday, July 17th, 1964, when the pool was packed, and everyone was enjoying the sun and water, six African-American males approached the entrance to the Terrace Club. They asked for admission and were denied. As planned, they placed their 60-cent guest membership fee on the counter, hopped over the turnbuckle, and made their way to Dreamland.
Once they entered the water, the lifeguards blew their whistles, and a pool employee went on the loudspeaker, calling on everyone to immediately clear the pool. When the protestors refused, they were threatened with arrest. Then, while everyone awaited the arrival of the police, some of the younger white swimmers, in a show of solidarity, jumped back into the pool.
A photographer with the Portsmouth Daily Times was there to catch the moment when one of the white youths reached out to shake hands with one of the protestors. The four adults -- Curt Gentry, Roy Burns, Jesse Baggette, and Charles Stanley Smith, Jr. -- were charged with trespassing, while the two juveniles were released without charges. Upon his release, Smith, who served as the president of Portsmouth’s NAACP chapter, asked the Times reporter, “We all go to school together, live together, why not swim together?”
Throughout the remainder of the summer of 1964 the Terrace Club continued to operate as a private, segregated, white-only club. Then in the spring of ‘65, the club’s board of directors, ended their ban on black members, dropped the “Terrace Club” name, and reopened as “Dreamland.” The era of Jim Crow had ended in Portsmouth. Nevertheless, a form of de facto segregation continued as Dreamland served the city’s white neighborhoods and McKinley served the formerly red-lined North End neighborhood.
The loss of manufacturing jobs in the 1970s and 80s took its toll. Residents moved away. Dreamland closed. And McKinley Pool, like many of the city’s other park facilities became neglected, much needed funds for repairs and improvements cut by a shrinking budget and tax base.
Today, McKinley Pool may not be alone in its need for restoration and community investment. But it is unique as a Portsmouth historical site, as a memorial to a young life lost due to segregation, and as a tribute to those members of the community who stood up for justice and equality, those residents, black and white, who helped bring Jim Crow to an end.
Please consider donating to the North End Project Committee, which has recently organized to improve and restore the public spaces of Portsmouth’s historic North End neighborhood. The Project is led by Thomas Bailey, a native of Portsmouth, who returned to the North End after a successful career in the US military. The Project currently functions under the umbrella of the North End Ministerial Alliance - PO Box 1802, Portsmouth, Ohio 45662.
Total costs for the restoration and improvements are estimated to be $45,000. With your help, we hope to raise half of that amount -- $22,500 -- online via this gofundme campaign.
Let’s make sure that the youth of Portsmouth have a safe public pool for swimming so that another life, like that of Eugene McKinley, is never again lost. Please donate to ensure that this memorial pool opens in time to mark this year’s anniversary.
Organizer and beneficiary
Andrew Feight
Organizer
Portsmouth, OH
Thomas Bailey
Beneficiary
