September 2021 - Parks & Recreation - 58

OBSERVING EQUITY
required traveling on different roads
and using entrances strategically
placed
away from
white
guests.
More importantly, state parks often
made available to Black people
were of lesser quality with a lack of
camping areas and amenities found
compared to the " whites-only " areas.
In addition, city ordinances were put
into place to outlaw integrated forms
of recreation to prevent African
American and white community
members from interacting with one
another. Examples of integrated
recreation considered to be illegal
included playing sports and board
games with people of different
races. In Alabama, even walking
through a park was illegal for Blacks.
Laws of legal segregation would
continue to exist even after the 1954
Supreme Court decision of Brown v.
Board of Education that challenged
Plessy v. Ferguson to end legal forms
of segregation in public schools.
Although public school segregation
was challenged in Brown v. Board
of Education, the decision would
open the door to allow citizens to
challenge legal forms of segregation
in other institutions, such as parks
and recreation.
Although many attempts were
made to desegregate parks and recreation
programs at federal levels,
many local governments would
continue to reinforce policies and
practices of legal segregation. This
occurred even after the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, which indicated discrimination
may not occur based on
race, religion or gender. The intent
to desegregate public places proved
to be more difficult to accomplish
than imagined as communities that
did not support desegregation efforts
took it upon themselves to close or
defund recreation programs or establish
private club memberships to
allow agencies to select their members.
This was evident in communities
where city park pools were filled
with concrete or city golf courses
were leased to organizations for $1
to establish members-only golfing
in an effort to maintain segregation.
Building private pools also became
more popular after the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, which maintained efforts
to segregate Black patrons from
accessing pools with white patrons.
The efforts that were made to
maintain segregation in parks and
recreation after legal segregation
had ended continue to have an impact
on African Americans' equitable
access to parks and recreation
programs today. This is apparent
when analyzing the number of park
and recreation spaces, programs
and resources available in predominantly
Black communities. More
specifically, some economically and
racially segregated cities, such as
Tallahassee, Florida, offer equitable
distribution of parks; however,
the park size and acreage available
increases in areas of the city that
A whites-only bench has inscriptions left
as a memory of racism and segregation.
58 Parks & Recreation | SEP T EMBER 2 0 2 1
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
September 2021 - Parks & Recreation

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