Martin Luther King Jr and the Right to Swim

On the national holiday on January 15 we remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we remember his love for swimming and the role he played in making swimming accessible to everybody.

In the summer of 1964, while congress was debating the passage of the civil Rights Act, Dr. King sent the future Mayor of Atlanta and US Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young to St. Augustine, Florida to calm the racial tensions that had been building up for years.

While leading a peaceful march through the City, Young was attacked and beaten by an angry mob of segregationists on the evening of June 9th. A few days later, Dr. King arrived to St. Augustine and was arrested in an attempt to integrate the restaurant at the Monson Motel. The following week, a group of “integrationists” staged a “swim-in” at the same motel’s pool.

The photographs of motel owner James Brock pouring muriatic acid in the pool, while the protesters were in it, became one of the iconic images of the Civil Rights era. The next week, the nation was shocked again by newsreels showing angry segregationists attacking African Americans attempting to peacefully “wade in” the water on St. Augustine’s segregated beaches.

These two incidents and the images broadcast in print and on tv across the nation are at least partially credited for ending the filibuster and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The right to swim was important to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was an activity he enjoyed doing with his family at the Butler St YMCA in Atlanta – which was known then as a Y for colored people.

It was also important to Ambassador Young, who was a varsity swimmer at Howard University. In 1992, Young received the Gold Medallion Award from the International Swimming Hall of Fame, given to former competitive aquatic athletes who have gone on to achieve international recognition outside of the pool and who are an inspiration to youth.