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