Renee

“In a complicated place that was so reliant on hierarchy and social order, Jay began to think hard about the way that swimming stripped people down to their bare elements. “You lose even more of your normal identity than if you got dressed for tennis, for example. You’re just skin, cap, goggles,” he says. “The outfits for swimming are at the bare minimum—their other identities aren’t visible. With two military people, you can’t tell who’s the officer and who’s the enlisted man.”
― Bonnie Tsui, Why We Swim

“Differences fell away in the water.”
― Bonnie Tsui, Why We Swim

“Black children drown at a rate five times that of white children. And as with so many other things, money also has a heavy hand in the way swimmers are made: in the United States, nearly 80 percent of children in families with a household income of less than fifty thousand dollars have no or low swimming ability.”
― Bonnie Tsui, Why We Swim

“This was a fight not just for the right of access but for the right of recreation, of leisure, no matter what your skin color. Many activists saw pools and beaches as the ultimate symbols of that freedom. In the mingling of bodies, in the act of sharing the same water with others, you can read volumes.”
― Bonnie Tsui, Why We Swim