Archeologists have made groundbreaking discoveries around the world with the use of LIDAR. The use of laser or radar surveying of tropical rainforests, for example, has revealed countless new Mayan ruins. For my own purposes here in St. Louis, I often turn to Google Satellite images, which sometimes shows shadows of the past, clues to parts of the built environment that were erased by demolition and later development. Just recently, I made an interesting discovery in Fairgrounds Park, at the corner of Natural Bridge Avenue and Grand Boulevard. Due to the way the grass had died due to the summer heat, a large circular shape had appeared in the otherwise straight lines of turf in the southeast corner of the park.

Opened in 1856, Fairgrounds Park was privately owned and was the site of fairs and expositions. There was even a small, rudimentary zoo; the last remnants of it exist in the old bear pits, now used as maintenance facilities, at the southeast corner of the park. But that round outline in the grass alludes to the great circular racetrack that once stood in that location. Long before modern safety standards, thousands of spectators would jam into the arena and watch horse races, as captured in this Harper’s Weekly woodcut.

× 1 of 5 Expand Harper's Weekly, October 13, 1877; courtesy of the Missouri History Museum The Great Fair × 2 of 5 Expand Plate 81 in Compton and Dry's Pictorial St. Louis Fairgrounds Park × 3 of 5 Expand Photo by William Burton for the St. Louis Times; courtesy of the Missouri History Museum A crowd gathered for the dedication of Fairgrounds Park, October 9, 1909 × 4 of 5 Expand Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum Children wait to enter the Fairgrounds Park pool, ca. 1915 × 5 of 5 Expand Photo by William G. Swekosky; courtesy of the Missouri History Museum Lifeguards jumping off the high dive at the Fairgrounds Park pool, ca. 1915 Prev Next

Louis Lemp raced his prize-winning horses at Fairgrounds Park until 1908, when the tracks closed and were sold to the City of St. Louis for $700,000. At a crowded dedication ceremony on October 9, 1909, the park officially opened to the public, and the foundations of the old race track became the precursor for a massive circular swimming pool rumored to hold as many as 12,000 people at once.

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Scrutinizing the satellite image, I realized that even after all these years, the outline of the giant circular pool in Fairgrounds Park is still evident in the landscape. There is a new pool on the site today, built in 1957, and nowhere near as vast as the one it replaced. The pool and its accompanying facilities are still in use today and are a beloved neighborhood amenity. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch article written for the 1957 grand opening lists off the new pool’s specs: 500-bather capacity; 11 feet deep, rising to 2 feet at the shallow end; two diving boards; a “butterfly roof” over the locker room. There is no mention of its predecessor’s demise.

× Expand Courtesy of the Missouri History Museum L.S. Curtis asking Superintendent Louis Fierer to admit his sons to the Fairgrounds pool.

Crisis came to that first pool in the final weeks of June 1949, as St. Louis and the rest of the nation sorted out the effects of the great victory over Germany and Japan. Newspaper reports at the time give us a detailed account of the awful events of June 21, when, with little fanfare, the City desegregated the Fairgrounds Park swimming pool. The director of public welfare, John O’Toole, quietly announced that all pools would be open to all, regardless of race. At 2 p.m., a dozen African-American children showed up at the Fairground pool’s gates. A mob of white teenagers attacked. It took more than 12 hours and more than 400 police officers to restore order. At one point, a police officer dove on top of an African-American boy to prevent the mob from raining more blows down on their victim. An African-American man and a white teenager were stabbed during the riot, and others were hospitalized with injuries. A July 4 edition of Life Magazine published a haunting photograph of one African American on the ground, the surrounding crowd staring ghoulishly into the camera. I wonder what those teenagers are doing nowadays.

Although no confrontations were reported down south at the Marquette Park Pool in Dutchtown, which was also desegregated, Mayor Joseph Darst reversed his decision and resegregated all pools in the City. Offering a consolation prize, he proposed the construction of a new pool with leftover funds from a recent bond issue. This is where the story of the events of 1949 usually ends, in more detailed articles about the Fairgrounds Park pool riots. What is omitted is how the African-American community in St. Louis rose up and fought back.

× Expand Photo by Harold Ferman for the St. Louis Star Times; courtesy of the Missouri History Museum Katie McCoullough and Rose Taylor with attorney George Draper, blocked by Louis Fierer, June 9, 1950

Enter George W. Draper II, an African-American lawyer and civil rights leader in St. Louis who grew to prominence in 1950 as he and others fought the segregation at Fairgrounds Park and other public facilities. The logic was simple: African Americans’ tax dollars paid for the maintenance of the park’s pool, and therefore they should be allowed to use them—not to mention the fact that the 14th Amendment guaranteed all residents equal rights under the law. Draper, along with other African Americans, confronted Superintendent Louis Fierer at the entrance gates of Fairgrounds Park pool. They were denied admission. Draper filed suit in U.S. court on June 22, 1950, on behalf of Rose E. Taylor against Mayor Darst and other City of St. Louis officials. According to a Post-Dispatch article on July 12, 1950, the City attempted to appease the judge by arguing for gradual desegregation and pointing to the construction of a new pool at Vashon High School.

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The City failed in its arguments. On July 17, 1950, Judge Rubey M. Hulen issued an injunction against St. Louis, desegregating all the pools in the city. Two days later, on July 19, three African-American boys showed up and swam at the Fairgrounds Park swimming pool; seven white boys were also there. A crowd gathered and began to taunt the boys. The crowd dispersed when the Police Chief Joseph Casey called for the paddy wagon. But the altercations continued for several more hours, fueled by white St. Louisans furious that the U.S. Court of Appeals had upheld Judge Hulen’s decision. The police began to make progress by arresting ringleaders, using walkie-talkies borrowed from the Coast Guard to coordinate their response.

Ironically, the Post then reported that the pools were switching to gender-separated days.

Ultimately, the huge circular pool at Fairgrounds Park became, I suspect, a victim of its size. It was essentially a giant pancake of concrete sitting on 19th-century foundations, bombarded yearly by thousands of tons of water and bathers. As mentioned above, it was replaced in 1957 by a smaller pool that is still in use today. George Draper, a graduate of Howard University and New York University School of Law, went on to a distinguished legal career, working in several government agencies and as assistant attorney general under Thomas F. Eagleton, then District of Columbia Superior Court Judge. He died far too young, at 55, of a heart attack.

And still, every summer, as the heat burns the grass in Fairgrounds Park, the memories of racial injustice emerge from just below the surface, asking us to learn the lessons of those long-ago hot summer days.