Mimi Jones - Protest In Swimming

In honor of Black History Month, we’ll be highlighting Black people and their role in swimming these next few weeks. Due to segregation, disinvestment and accessibility, swimming pools were hard to come by in Black neighborhoods. Along with several other factors, this has had an effect on communities of color to this day, leaving the sport with majority white athletes. In 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement, Mimi Jones was 17 when she jumped into a “whites only” pool at a hotel in St. Augustine, Florida. A young activist since the age of 15, she and a dozen other activists, traveled from Georgia to hold a swim-in protest.

At the time, segregation was still in effect across the country and Black people were not permitted to swim in pools that were for White people only. Moments later, the hotel manager, James Brock poured muriatic acid, a cleaning agent, into the pool and onto Jones and the other protestors. Jones was arrested and charged with “deliberate disturbance of the peace”. The photo of Jones swimming while acid was being poured into the pool, was on the front page of major newspapers the next day. The following day, the Civil Rights bill was passed. The swim-in has been widely credited with helping win support for the bill which had been stalled in the Senate. Mimi Jones died on July 26, 2020. Read Jones’ story here.