You may have read or heard or yesterday that a Huntingdon Valley swim club decided to cancel an agreement with a Northeast Philadelphia day camp to allow campers to swim at the club two time a week because, the black campers would “change the complexion…and atmosphere of the club.” Kids who came to swim were summarily asked to leave the pool and told not to come back?
What is there to say to decent people about the existence of blatant racism in this day and age? It’s grossly immoral. It’s enormously ignorant. It’s a throwback to days most of us hoped were long gone.
And it can’t be allowed to stand without legal action and protest. Not to stand up and say that this sort of behavior is beyond the pale, is to allow it, and the attitudes behind it, to survive one more day.
So, an initial protest against the club will take place today at 5:30 pm. Come to the club, 22 Tomlinson Road, Huntingdon Valley 19006-4219.
The best things in America, including our efforts to overcome the worst thing in America, our legacy of racism were created by small acts of love and self-sacrifice—individual acts of moral heroism—on the part of millions of people.
Now is your time to join us in such an act. Sacrifice an hour or two of your day to stand against racism.
And please tell your friends.