JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the Black community, racial segregation and decades of being banned from local swimming pools have had a lasting and painful “Ripple Effect.”
News4JAX is looking into how racism and a history of segregation surrounding swimming pools create barriers that still exist today and play a part in the high drowning rates among the Black community and in the inability of many in the community to swim, leading to tragedies like the stories of news reporter Hope Bartlett and 5-year-old Kareem Green.
If Bartlett’s name sounds familiar, she was a reporter in Jacksonville in the late 90s who died in 1998 while out on a story.
She was on a boat on the St. Johns River near the Dames Point Bridge, when the boat took a sharp turn and capsized, causing everyone to fall overboard.
Bartlett and the boat’s captain died. Bartlett was 24.
Two others on board were pulled from the water by people on a passing shrimp boat.
Officials at the time said although Bartlett wore a lifejacket most of the day, she had taken it off briefly to tape a segment of her story.
Bartlett’s mother, Elaine, said her daughter couldn’t swim. Elaine can’t either.
Elaine said that’s because there wasn’t a pool in Green Cove Springs where she could even learn to swim in the 1950s.
It’s a common story among African American families.
The USA Swimming Foundation said that if a parent does not know how to swim, there is only a 13% chance that their child will learn the life-saving skill.
But Arkeisha Reese, who lost her 5-year-old son Kareem Green to drowning 17 years ago, wants to encourage families to break that cycle.
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“You could stop it. Right now, you don’t have to do what your mom or your grandma did,” she said. “You could start with your kids. Let’s stop this generational curse. Please, you’re hearing it from me, a mother who has lost her child. Make it a priority. Talk about swimming.”
To learn more about Reese’s Team Kareem Memorial Foundation and the water safety legislation she’s working to pass in Florida with the help of a state representative, click here.