Sex, Segregation and Swimming Pools in the South

"Swimming and sex seemed a lot alike to me when I was growing up in Tuscaloosa. You took off most of your clothes to do them and you only did them with people who were the same color as you. As your daddy got richer, you got to do them both in fancier places. Country club pools instead of public ones where you paid a quarter. Rooms at the Stafford Hotel (or at least back seats with leather upholstery) instead of creek banks somewhere out in the county or lying on your boyfriend's work shirt out in the woods or on top of an Indian mound, trying to swat the mosquitoes off his back and your own legs. Both sex and swimming could involve liquid, heat, inflatable protection devices, and the occasional unguent. And bad things, real bad things, could happen if you did not follow the rules. My family was big on talking about rules, but keeping them has never been our strong suit, especially in the sex department."

So begins the introduction to "Family Bible" by Melissa Delbridge, an archivist in Duke's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library and a former fellow at the John Hope Franklin Institute. "Family Bible" is a trilogy of essays about her youth in Alabama, all of which touch on the topic of swimming and swimming pools in the segregated South. She will read from the essays Jan. 25 at the John Hope Franklin Center.

Event: Wednesdays at the John Hope Franklin Center Series

Speaker: Melissa Delbridge, Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library.

Topic: "Family Bible"

Details: Noon Wednesday, Jan 25, 240FranklinCenter, 2204 Erwin Road.

For more information, contact anne.whisnant@duke.edu, 668-1902