As Lia Neal, Cullen Jones, and Anthony Irvin compete in the the
2012 Olympic Games, they are not simply battling the best in the
world; they are helping to close the book on a sad chapter in
American history. With each start, each stroke, and each flip-
turn, the trio of African-American swimmers are putting the
historic (and occasionally more recent) exclusion of African-
Americans from America’s pools further behind us. Their presence
on this year’s Olympic team and their place among the larger
history of black Olympic swimmers (they join Maritza Correia,
who won a silver medal in 2004) reminds us of a larger history
of racism and exclusion. Indeed, to witness three black
Olympians competing as swimmers represents the continued
struggle against the longstanding efforts to keep pools white.
“Sports reflect a larger quandary in the land of opportunity,
that so many sports have been resistant to inclusion for all
races,” writes William C. Rhoden. And for decades, African-
Americans were denied access to swimming