This episode explores the history of access of Black and people of color to the nearly 85 million acres of land managed by the National Park Service, how wealthy white aristocracy set control over that land, President Roosevelt’s used his executive powers to restrict access for his own social and racial class and how this history plays a role in the migration of Black Americans to urban centers across the U.S. 

The episode features interviews with Professor Matthew Pratt Guterl Brown University, Photography, author and birder, Dudley Edmonson, and a clip from poet Kyle Guante Tran Myhre.

From redlining to Levittown to block busting, access to residential areas by Black families has long been policed by white people. This episode of The Gatekeepers looks at the history of whites only neighborhoods, the impact of gentrification on policing, and who gets to live where. This week’s episode guests were Brenden Beck, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado Denver. Chris Herring, Doctoral candidate of Sociology at the University of California Berkeley. The full video and audio on Leavittown can be found here. The full theme for East Side West Side can be found here. You can support this podcast by visiting https://www.damemagazine.com/plans/memberships/

While for most children, recreational activities like amusement parks, sports leagues, zoos are benchmark memories, for Black children, especially those growing up during the civil rights era and prior to desegregation, they are little more than reminders of exclusion during their childhoods and today, whether at pools or at playgrounds, we're still seeing echoes of recreational policing. In this episode host and producer, Jennifer Taylor-Skinner talks to Professor Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters, Professor Victoria Walcott, author of Race, Riots and Rollercoasters, Historian and civil rights activist Margaret Morrison and Scholar Mia Carey, who wrote the paper Becoming a Force for Desegregation, the Girl Scouts and Civil Rights in the Nation's Capitol. 

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The policing of swimming pools, has a long, painful, and often violent history. Long before the Civil Rights Movement, white citizens took it upon themselves to police swimming pools, often using violence against Black swimmers to ensure that these spaces remain segregated. The historical arch of policing swimming has lead to a culture of defacto segregation, where white people still police these spaces, often creating a hostile and unwelcoming environment for Black swimmers. Interview Sources:

• Prof Jeff Wiltse, author of the book Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America
• Prof Victoria Wolcott, author of Race, Riots, and Roller Coasters: The Struggle over Segregated Recreation in America

Who owns public space? Although segregation legally ended in 1964 with the passing of the Civil Rights Act, informal policing of public spaces has continued. Recent viral videos where people of color are confronted in public spaces, are only half the story. From parks, to pools, to neighborhoods, to college campuses, people of color are being policed from public spaces. The podcast takes a deep historical dive to uncover past instances of citizen policing, and seeks to uncover the motivations behind more recent events.