{"id":148,"date":"2010-06-17T18:03:02","date_gmt":"2010-06-17T23:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=148"},"modified":"2010-06-17T18:03:17","modified_gmt":"2010-06-17T23:03:17","slug":"a-playground-not-for-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/?p=148","title":{"rendered":"A Playground Not For All"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joplin<\/a>

African Americans were generally not welcomed at swimming pools like this one at the Joplin Country Club.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1910, the total black population of Joplin was approximately 800 individuals out of a total population of approximately 32,000.\u00a0 Thus, the African American community represented only about 2.5% of the city’s population.\u00a0 Despite being such an insignificant portion of the population, the de facto laws of segregation were in strong effect in 1913.\u00a0 The effect of the segregation struck one prominent Joplin businessman when he took his son to the local playground.\u00a0 He recounted, \u201cThe other night I went to the playground with my son.\u00a0 It made my heart ache to see the wistful faces of the negro children outside the fence, and know that they could not enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not merely the denial of the playground to the black children that upset the businessman, but also that, \u201cUnlike white children the negro kiddies cannot have the swimming privilege of the amusement parks of the district.\u201d\u00a0 Additionally, the businessman noted, \u201cthey are not allowed to attend many moving picture theaters, and are confined to a balcony in those places they are allowed to enter.\u00a0 The streets and alleys are the only places they are welcome.\u00a0 When they grow up they are unwelcome almost everyplace they visit.\u00a0 It is not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result of the segregation, the businessman pledged $250 to the establishment of a playground where black children, as well the general poor, could visit and play.\u00a0 It would not be the first donation by a businessman to benefit the black community of Joplin, previously Thomas Connor had paid for the construction of four African American churches some years earlier.\u00a0 Such sentiments were a start toward a better approach to a society of different races, but unfortunately along the reasoning of \u201cseparate but equal,\u201d not equality for all.\u00a0 The solution in 1913 Joplin was not to open the playground to children of all races, but to simply build another playground.<\/p>\n

Source: Joplin News-Herald, 1910 United States Census<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1910, the total black population of Joplin was approximately 800 individuals out of a total population of approximately 32,000.\u00a0 Thus, the African American community represented only about 2.5% of the city’s population.\u00a0 Despite being such an insignificant portion of the population, the de facto laws of segregation were in strong effect in 1913.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[552,264,35],"tags":[606,407,602,328,31,599,600,408,604,598,603,605,449,601],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historicjoplin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}