african-americans access to public goods, like public pools. and in the years that followed, the public goods themselves garnered less investment. economist robert reich writes, since the 1970s, almost all the growth from the gains have gone to the top, but as the rich begin shifting to private institutions, they withdrew political support for public ones. in consequence, their marginal tax rates dropped, setting off a vicious cycle of diminishing revenues and deteriorating quality, spurring more flight from public institutions. jeff wolettes, who is the author of the book contested waters: a social history of swimming pools in america explains, when black americans gained equal access to municipal pools, white swimmers generally abandoned them for private pools, and cities downgraded the importance of public pools. 50 right after the civil rights act, the struggle is not just about getting access to the pool for some, it s about keeping the pool open for all. with me at the table, j
more importantly, perhaps, just draw attention to a message, it s a tremendously powerful tool. when that power is then levied against a single individual who steps out of line, it becomes a lot more like, i don t know, cyberbullying? yes, that term s been used. so richard, as you look at that particular moment, the cancel colbert moment, because i think, for all of us on twitter, there are moments where it s like, yeah, go twitter, get em, twitter. and other times, oh, god, is this happening, oh, no. how did you experience the cancel colbert moment? when that came out, you had to read into what was the process, the timeline that progressed over that period of with what, 24 to 48 hours. when i look at what suey park told the new yorker and her intent behind this. she s basically saying, hey, i know the way this system works. i know how this pool is. i know how warm the water is, why can t i get in and swim too? i don t want colbert to be
accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin. the law marked a pivotal moment in our country s history, one that was intended to put an end to situations like the one you see here. this is two weeks before the act was signed, june 18th, 1964. and in this photo, you can see black and white americans swimming together in a hotel pool in florida. but look more closely. that man in the background is the hotel management, and he is pouring acid into the pool to try to force the swimmers out. that s because these swimmers were protesting the pool s whites only policy. that man is diving into the pool there to physically remove all of the protesters, all of whom were arrested. swimming pools are one example of a public good, paid for by public dollars, and there was a boom of pool construction in the 1930s, during the new deal, providing jobs for unemployed workers and recreat
mayors, integration through the civil rights movement, and then you started seeing white flight. and the presumption was there was some place you could flee, and therefore be safe from these kind of social statistics that i just suggested. but when we started talking about a massive public disinvestment in sfr you ainfra, you know, the white people ride on the roads too, we all go over the bridges together. it would be nice to go to a free pool if you are a working class white person, and as, in fact, as we have seen in this downturn, an increasing number of white americans experiencing poverty, then the lack of that safety net, so, should we now be revising this idea, that there isn t a place to flee? that, in fact, african-americans are the miner s canary. these social statistics also have consequences for why is households. i think what s really great about having this conversation, we don t tend to talk about it in terms of the public atmosphere and the decline of the public sphe
americans, and outing money in a collective pot, intended to be used for a collective good, were legally barred in most states from accessing those public goods. goods like public swimming pools. despite the fact that they were helping to fund them. swimming pools were the site of a series of protests. here is a young man being arrested in 1949 after 70 black youth came to the anacostia park swimming pool in washington, d.c., and the white pool patrons refused to let them swim. and at this time, illinois pool in 1962, black youth marched for an hour, protesting the pool s whites-only policy. the 1964 civil rights act was intended to change all of that by granting equal access to public goods to the black americans who were already paying equal contributions. but what happened to public accommodations in the years after 1964 is more complicated. here are black youth swimming in a state park pool in a small georgia town in 1965. what we don t see are the white swimmers who left the pool