What I’m Reading: Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters – 7 in a series – “This violence was regional…”

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“How, then, was a national system of recreational segregation organized? To a startling extent it was violence—or the fear of violence—that dictated where and to what extent racial mixing could take place. This violence was regional, located only in the South, but local. When whites beat African Americans seeking leisure at amusement parks or swimming pools, white officials and the mainstream media often viewed them as “hoodlums” causing trouble. But politicians and the courts also routinely used the threat of such incidents as a reason to slow the pace of integration, and owners of recreational facilities invoked the potential for racial conflict as a primary motivation for keeping blacks out.“

From Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America by Victoria W. Wolcott

Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America by Victoria W. Wolcott

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