In 1922, South Bend opened the Engman Public Natatorium, its first public swimming pool. Despite being called public, South Bend’s black community was denied access to the pool for the next three decades. In 1950, after years of legal and political activism, a legal motion to fully open the pool finally passed. However, in 1978, the pool, in need of repair and now in a mostly minority neighborhood, was closed.
Thirty years later, the building was transformed by a group of local residents and Indiana University South Bend into the Civil Rights Heritage Center, a space that educates community members on the history of segregation against communities of color in South Bend, using the pool’s story to share past and present issues of civil rights and social justice. The Center offers tours, hosts events, and maintains a library of local history documents, photographs, and oral histories.
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