A century ago, Black Edmontonians fought for the right to swim at public pools
Ordinance segregating outdoor pools was one of many such policies in Canada
In the summer of 1924, a young boy unwittingly sparked controversy when he went to cool off at Edmonton's East End Pool.
The outdoor swimming pool in Borden Park was a crowded destination stretched out under the shadow of a wooden roller-coaster at the neighbouring midway.
When the boy, a Black kid with a group of white friends, tried to enter the pool, the attendant stopped him at the gate.
A city ordinance, quietly passed the year before, barred Black residents from bathing in the same pools as white people.
A century later, swimmers still go to the public pool for a carefree reprieve from the summer heat. Few Edmontonians may know that generations earlier, there was a debate about who had the right to enter.
"When you go to a public swimming pool, there probably isn't anything that would ever say that at one point this was segregated," Rosemary Holland said.
Holland's father, Ernie Walker, was part of a committee that fought against the ordinance.
For Holland, it's important that Canadians recognize that Edmonton's Black community helped shape the country's history.
"You are now standing on the shoulders of these giants that paved the way," she said in an interview with CBC News.
That summer in 1924, the boy's mother, Willetta Poston, demanded that city council reverse the policy. She was supported by the committee of prominent members of the city's Black community, including Walker, Poston's brother.
In a letter, the committee said that the city commissioner, Christopher Yorath, had told them he personally thought a white man and a Black man "should not enter the same pool and that the order must stand."
The committee disagreed in the strongest terms.
Excluding Black people from enjoying a public amenity "smacks so true to the form of hateful Ku Kluxism that discounts worthy people simply because of race, creed and colour," they wrote to city council.
READ | Newspaper story contains the committee's complaint:
The letter emphasized they were "law-abiding and rate-paying citizens" who deserved full access to spaces open to other members of the public.
The writers appealed to city council "to set aside this order and thus protect us from so gross an insult and injustice."
On July 14, 1924, council voted to overturn the segregationist policy. At the same meeting, Yorath resigned from his position as commissioner.
Family rediscovers history
Holland only learned about the story decades later. She was doing historical research into contributions made by the city's Black community when she found newspaper articles detailing the fight against the ordinance.
"It was just quietly settled; something that you needed to do," she said.
Holland said her father never mentioned to her that pools in Edmonton were once segregated. Nor did he tell her that he and his sister had fought against the policy.
"There were no bragging rights about any of that," Holland said.
Walker was among many African-Americans who moved to the Canadian Prairies in the early 20th century only to find that many of the same forms of discrimination they fled in the United States persisted north of the border.
He moved to Edmonton from Missouri to become a railway porter and his relatives joined him in the following years.
"I vaguely remember in the downtown area, around 97th Street, a sign at one of the bars that said 'Whites Only,'" said Debbie Beaver, Walker's niece. Beaver researches Alberta's Black history.
Beaver, who grew up in Campsie, a rural settlement near Barrhead, said she remembered seeing that sign in the 1950s when visiting the central neighbourhood where many people from the city's Black community lived.
"It wasn't just swimming pools," Beaver said. In the same era, many Black people who came to Edmonton for work or travel discovered they wouldn't be able to rent a room at a hotel or dine in many restaurants, she said.
In his retirement years, Ernie Walker regularly rented rooms and provided meals to people he met while working as a shoe shine at the bus station or train station.
"Rosemary's mom served many meals to people that Uncle Ernie dragged home from the train or off the bus," Beaver said.
Even famed musicians who would come to perform at Edmonton hotels, like Pearl Bailey or Oscar Peterson, stayed with Walker family members because those same establishments would not allow them to sleep there overnight.
Descendants keep swimming along
Today, Beaver enjoys taking a dip at Edmonton city pools. "I go to aquasize three times a week; I was there yesterday," she told CBC.
Holland's son LeVonn became a lifeguard when he turned 18, at the time not knowing he was working at the same city pools his ancestors had been banned from entering.
He said he learned about the letter and the city's policy reversal in middle age, when he hosted a neighbourhood tour near his grandparents' former home.
It made him think differently about his time as a lifeguard and his family's legacy.
"That was the issue of the day that people were dealing with," he said.
"I think that's sad and concerning, but also I'm excited and proud that my grandfather — and really my great aunt — were part of this effort to have that changed."
READ | Council overturns ordinance, commissioner resigns:
The East End pool has since been removed. In 2018, Canada's first man-made natural swimming pool opened in Borden Park, making it once again a popular destination for swimmers. The history of the former location was not mentioned, but slowly recognition has grown.
In 2022, when the city's Queen Elizabeth Pool marked its centennial as the first municipal outdoor pool in Western Canada, a new interpretive sign included the history of segregation in Edmonton around the time that pool first opened.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
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