Family History Note Written By George W. King, Circa 1999
The adults in the pool picture are (L-R); my brother Alfred II (Nick), Olear (Haslerig) Jones (my niece), and at the top of the ladder, her brother George Haslerig Jr. The two children in front of Olear most likely are her twin sons, Michael (now deceased-a story in itself) and Wendell, born in November 1956. They look to be 2-3 yrs old in the picture which would date the time as the summer of 1959 (or maybe 1960). Olear also has a daughter (Alberta, aka Kitten) born in 1958, but I doubt she is in the picture. Shawn can maybe identify Nick’s children in the picture, but my guess is that his son Nicky III is walking up behind George (Baby Brother), John (Marty) is standing in front of Nick, and Shawn is in front of George. The two girls may very well be George’s daughters.
Chattanooga had only one park with a swimming pool to accommodate all of the blacks in the city. There was also a facility within a state park (Booker T. Washington State Park) that had a swimming/boating area and picnic grounds. In other mostly black areas of the city you might find a small park with a few swings and maybe a basketball court and/or a baseball/softball field, but no swimming pool. The general pattern for segregated facilities was to have completely separate facilities except for hospitals, triple AAA baseball parks, and possibly museums. Shared facilities had white only sections or were used by blacks only on certain days. This was the pattern throughout the south.