How can we learn about something that happened 100 years ago? Our City Pool Desegregation lesson introduces students to historical documents, as well as to the history of a lesser known desegregation battle. By examining short excerpts of a speech and newspaper articles, students learn about how civil rights leaders fought against segregation of Los Angeles city pools and won.
We developed this lesson with the support of the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) participants and in collaboration with Los Angeles Unified School District. We designed this lesson with K-2 classrooms in mind, but it is readily adaptable for use with older students. It focuses on the EAD theme of “Civic Participation” for grade 2 by presenting students an inquiry into one history of how Americans have “come together in groups, made decisions, and affected their communities.” Through guided exploration of the history of city pool desegregation in Los Angeles, the lesson addresses the EAD history driving question, “How have people made our community better?” (HDQ1.1C), as well as the EAD history guiding questions, “What are stories of when/how people have changed the community for the better?” (HSGQ1.1A) and “What makes a community fair?” (HSGQ1.1D). To access the other Reading Like a Historian K-5 lessons made in this collaboration, click here.
Photo of the Exposition Park pool in 1939 from the Los Angeles Public Library.