Here’s the row of houses seen behind the pool today, along St. Johns Ave.
Pool looks racially segregated to me.
There appear to be black children watching from outside of the fence, with no black kids seen in the pool? I do hope that I am wrong, however it would not come as a surprise, sadly.
@debrald, I think you are right. This gives me an opportunity to ask the general readership how to comment on something like this — if one agrees with the observation, although it may reflect a societal problem one doesn’t agree with (segregation), does one click on the “up” hand for agreeing with the writer, or the “down” hand for disapproving the societal problem? I think I see “down” votes sometimes on what seem to be perfectly correct comments, although the phenomenon about which the comment was made may be a negative event.
I don’t see any black kids in the photo. It looks like all white kids. And this is 1943 – St. Johns may not have been the destination for black families.
Liz C.
This is a good question, I have wondered something similar while on facebook,
As I was just making an observation, still my comment is receiving mixed evues…LOL. I think that I am lucky not to be on twitter!
I cannot tell if any of the kids behind the fence are African American or not. However, I feel it is okay to comment on social injustice. This is not a political issue; rather, it is one of humanitarian and decency issues. I remember “white only” drinking fountains in Arkansas. 😩
The timing of the picture is intriguing to me. Its obviously summer time, so lets assume this was July of 1943. While these kids are splashing in the pool–the picture of normalcy–Allied troops were invading and liberating Sicily. The tied was turning in their favor, but the outcome of the war was still far from certain. How many of these kids had fathers, uncles and brothers overseas at this moment? Were they worried sick? Was the pool a friendly if only brief respite from the tension of war?
Looks like the remains of some clear-cuts in Forest Park. Also, can anyone ID the vehicles? The one on the far right looks like it’s from the 20’s and is a truck, or a car converted into a truck. I think the one in the front is a mid 30’s Ford.
Seriously folks, these are white kids in a white neighborhood in 1943. No one is keeping the black kids out of the pool; they just aren’t there.
The whole of Portland residences were segregated in 1943. Portland had a very small black population before WW 2. The nearest large population of blacks to Pier Park would likely be Vanport. Not sure if the St. John’s Woods or Columbia Villa projects were segregated. They were closer to Pier Park.
Polio was still a big issue in 1943.
I don’t see any black people in this photo. Don’t make issues where none exist. You know me on here. If there’s an issue I speak up.
FYI: June 30, 1943 from Today in World War II History website:
June 30, 1943: US Sixth Army, in its first operation, lands main force on unoccupied Kiriwina and Woodlark in Trobriand Islands (Southwest Pacific).
US Army and Marines land on Rendova in the Solomons.
Depression-Era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) are officially disbanded.
The only segregation I see in this pic is that the kids without swimming suits are on the outside while the ones with suits are on the inside. Oh the injustice!
Vintage Portland 
Here’s the row of houses seen behind the pool today, along St. Johns Ave.
Pool looks racially segregated to me.
There appear to be black children watching from outside of the fence, with no black kids seen in the pool? I do hope that I am wrong, however it would not come as a surprise, sadly.
@debrald, I think you are right. This gives me an opportunity to ask the general readership how to comment on something like this — if one agrees with the observation, although it may reflect a societal problem one doesn’t agree with (segregation), does one click on the “up” hand for agreeing with the writer, or the “down” hand for disapproving the societal problem? I think I see “down” votes sometimes on what seem to be perfectly correct comments, although the phenomenon about which the comment was made may be a negative event.
I don’t see any black kids in the photo. It looks like all white kids. And this is 1943 – St. Johns may not have been the destination for black families.
Liz C.
This is a good question, I have wondered something similar while on facebook,
As I was just making an observation, still my comment is receiving mixed evues…LOL. I think that I am lucky not to be on twitter!
I cannot tell if any of the kids behind the fence are African American or not. However, I feel it is okay to comment on social injustice. This is not a political issue; rather, it is one of humanitarian and decency issues. I remember “white only” drinking fountains in Arkansas. 😩
The timing of the picture is intriguing to me. Its obviously summer time, so lets assume this was July of 1943. While these kids are splashing in the pool–the picture of normalcy–Allied troops were invading and liberating Sicily. The tied was turning in their favor, but the outcome of the war was still far from certain. How many of these kids had fathers, uncles and brothers overseas at this moment? Were they worried sick? Was the pool a friendly if only brief respite from the tension of war?
Looks like the remains of some clear-cuts in Forest Park. Also, can anyone ID the vehicles? The one on the far right looks like it’s from the 20’s and is a truck, or a car converted into a truck. I think the one in the front is a mid 30’s Ford.
Seriously folks, these are white kids in a white neighborhood in 1943. No one is keeping the black kids out of the pool; they just aren’t there.
The whole of Portland residences were segregated in 1943. Portland had a very small black population before WW 2. The nearest large population of blacks to Pier Park would likely be Vanport. Not sure if the St. John’s Woods or Columbia Villa projects were segregated. They were closer to Pier Park.
Polio was still a big issue in 1943.
I don’t see any black people in this photo. Don’t make issues where none exist. You know me on here. If there’s an issue I speak up.
FYI: June 30, 1943 from Today in World War II History website:
June 30, 1943: US Sixth Army, in its first operation, lands main force on unoccupied Kiriwina and Woodlark in Trobriand Islands (Southwest Pacific).
US Army and Marines land on Rendova in the Solomons.
Depression-Era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) are officially disbanded.
The only segregation I see in this pic is that the kids without swimming suits are on the outside while the ones with suits are on the inside. Oh the injustice!