WATER
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
—MLK
Timchia + Lily
Water has been a powerful and painful throughline in the Black American experience—from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to segregation, protest violence, and systemic inequity—symbolizing both the struggle for survival and the barriers to freedom across generations.
Over the course of our trip, we saw how water was a prevalent theme within the African struggle in America.
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Starting from the Transatlantic Slave Trade, water was the means by which 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, packed in boats, and taken to the Americas to be sold into slavery. Those who refused that manifested “destiny” would jump off the boats, making water their burial ground—a much better fate than the generation-impacting alternative.
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Then, during slavery, slaveholders would deprive “disobedient” slaves of water as punishment, a simultaneous means to save money for themselves. Fed up with the inhumane treatment, enslaved individuals would flee, often crossing rivers (like the Ohio River) to be legally free.
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The subsequent Jim Crow laws would bar Black people from public swimming pools. The man above is pouring bleach in a pool that a Black woman happens to be in, showing how he would rather destroy public property than be in the same body of water as a Black person.
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During the Children’s Crusade in particular, police and firefighters would shoot water cannons at innocent protestors, as shown in this photo. Because the water jets ripped off skin, they can be considered stronger than third-degree burns.
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Even after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, white migration to the suburbs left Black communities underserved and defunded, so there was no incentive to build public pools in their neighborhoods. This made it so Black people had difficulty accessing swimming education, preventing their children from learning to swim for several generations to come. Now, we find that nearly 60% of Black children cannot swim, explaining the stereotype.
