Qualla: Anacostia Pool riot

Anacostia Pool riot: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Two young Black men walked into the Anacostia public pool on June 29, 1949. It was the third time in three days that Black swimmers had tried to use the pool, and the third time a crowd of white boys gathered to splash them, surround them, and force them out of the water. By the early afternoon there were about a hundred white people and seventy Black people at the pool itself. A few hours later there were 450 people in Anacostia Park outside the pool, many of them armed with baseball bats, clubs, and concealed knives, and four people had been hurt badly enough to be carried to Casualty Hospital. Bill Mabry, one of the Black swimmers, would later call it Washington's first race riot. The Truman administration had a choice. It could roll back the order that had triggered the violence. Or it could double down on integration. It doubled down.

Read more: Anacostia Pool riot on Qualla

Anacostia Pool riot: A Segregated Capital

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Washington in 1949 was a Jim Crow city in every practical sense, even though no city ordinance required separation of the races. Black residents were systematically barred from most hotels, restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations - a structure of private discrimina...

Read more: Anacostia Pool riot on Qualla

Anacostia Pool riot: Three Days of Violence

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On June 27, two young Black men entered the Anacostia pool. White boys at the pool surrounded them and forced them out of the water. About 50 white bystanders joined the mob and began to boo. Officers from the Metropolitan Police arrived and made no arrests. An hour later four mo...

Read more: Anacostia Pool riot on Qualla

Anacostia Pool riot: Five Arrests and a Statement

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

When the violence finally subsided that evening, four people had been hurt seriously enough to be treated at Casualty Hospital. The police made five arrests - two Black men and three white men. The arrest record itself revealed the politics of the moment: two of the three white a...

Read more: Anacostia Pool riot on Qualla

Anacostia Pool riot: Twenty-Five Mothers

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On August 16, 1949, a biracial delegation of twenty-five mothers, organized by neighborhood civil rights activists, came to Interior Secretary Krug with a request. They asked him to reopen the Anacostia pool as a fully integrated facility under enforced federal nondiscrimination ...

Read more: Anacostia Pool riot on Qualla