It's another hot day in DeKalb County and while Gresham Recreation Center's outdoor pool is a hub of respite for many, the reality is different in the nearby city of East Point, where public pools are non-existent. This absence isn't by coincidence; it's a product of the city's historical racial tensions that continue to echo into present amenities, or a lack thereof.
East Point, home to 38,000 residents, hasn't had a public pool since the 1980s—a fact brought to light by resident Hannah Palmer's "Ghost Pools" project, which details the history of the city's segregated swimming spaces. The city, during segregation, operated pools for white and Black community members separately, which led to an uneasy undercurrent that lingered long after the pools' closures, according to a report by WABE.
Linda "Sissie" Lang, a long-time resident of East Point, reminisces about the pools, “When you’re standing there in a bathing suit, you don’t know what a person’s financial background is. You know, you’re just standing there, just hopping in a pool —you make a friend with somebody. That’s what it’s all about.” But these pools closed in 1983 after a failed bond referendum that would have funded necessary repairs and construction; in the intervening years there's been no movement to revive them, despite recommendations by the National Recreation and Park Association to have three pools for a city of East Point's size, as per WABE.
Plans for a new recreation center with a pool surfaced as recently as 2018 during community meetings, and again in 2020, as referenced by Karen René, a former East Point city council member, who told WABE that the pandemic slowed any progress due to budget constraints, but she believes that the current city leadership understands the importance of aquatic spaces for the area. However, the city council hasn't released significant updates on any future pool, and without a clear plan, the patchwork history of segregated pools and the subsequent void left in East Point's communal spaces remains unbridged there is yet to be a resolution for this long-standing issue.
