What I’m Reading: Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters – 21 in a series – “…Negro youth have suffered much in the attainment of many social objectives…”

“Writing in 1940, E. B. Henderson, a prominent educator who is credited with popularizing basketball among African Americans, argued, “to a larger degree than other youth, Negro youth have suffered much in the attainment of many social objectives under policies of segregation.” This was, he argued, “as true for recreation as it is true of segregated systems of education.”86 Although Henderson noted that local government, using federal funds, had built new playgrounds and some recreational buildings designated for blacks during the 1930s, there were almost no public facilities for bowling, golf, ice-skating, or swimming.

Access to recreation was linked to workers’ rights, demands for equal housing, and voting rights. And recreation, unlike unionization of adult workers, impacted all community members—men, women, and children—who sought access to leisure in the midst of economic despair.”

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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