#historictalk.com

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A father teaching his son to ride a bike in Central Park, New York City. ca 1973

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In June of 1958, David Isom was nineteen years old when he decided he wanted to go for a swim and headed to a nearby pool. It was a white-only pool in Florida, but that didn't stop him. He walked right in and began using the facility, which sparked outrage.

The manager of the facility immediately closed down the place and made everyone leave. Then they drained and cleaned the pool in hopes it would be sanitized and ready for only white people to use again. 

According to the Amityville Echo, The Spa Pool was a swimming pool in Florida that opened in 1955 near the Spa Beach. Since both facilities were reserved for white people only, Black people were relegated to using an area in Tampa Bay called “The South Mole,” a trash littered beach that had a tiny swimming pool area near it. On June 8, 1958, Isom decided that enough was enough, taking matters into his own hands and taking a bold action that would effectively change the course of history. 

He entered the Spa Pool after purchasing a ticket at the counter. The cashier later said that she was told to treat him “like any other citizen.” There were already about 45 white people at the pool that day, and Isom said he paid little attention to them as he got in the pool and swam alongside the other patrons. Tommy Chinnis, the lifeguard on duty, echoed those sentiments, saying that they also paid little attention to him because “he was like everyone else.” 

However, the Spa Pool manager, John Gough, closed the pool down after Isom’s swim, proving he wasn’t “like everyone else.” Gough said he was acting at the behest of city manager Ross Windom who told him the facility needed to be closed because “a n***** had used the facilities.” While the fallout from the incident was swift, both the Spa Pool and Spa Beach closing, Isom said that he didn’t actually experience any tension while there, maintaining that swimming in a clean pool should “not be a privilege, just a right.” 

The pool remained closed until, Florida city council members opening it again in 1959 under the direction of new city manager George K. Armes. In assuming his new position, Armes declared that the facility would remain open unless there was “trouble.”

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An officer in the 1970s, holding a certain illegal leafy green, and the handcuffed guy next to him was clearly caught growing this green substance.