Pine Bluff’s New Aquatic Center is ‘More Than a Pool’

In yet another example of Pine Bluff’s renaissance, the city opened a new state-of-the-art aquatic center today with a ribbon cutting and family fun day attended by hundreds including city, county and state leaders as well as the first Black woman to make the U.S. Olympic Swim team and medal.

Mayor Shirley Washington told the crowd, “Today has been many years in the making.”

City planners hope the new facility will attract visitors from Jefferson County and rewrite the narrative surrounding integrated pools decades after the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka outlawed separate but equal public schools and other services including swimming pools. Washington applauded the civil rights leaders and others who succeeding in breaking down barriers but acknowledged obstacles remained.

“Even in the face of this progress, pools and swimming have too often been open only to a fraction of a few citizens,” Mayor Washington said. “This is until now. When the people of Pine Bluff refused to believe it could not be done, we came together in unity across three Mayors and five City Council terms. We came together with hope in our hearts that change was possible. We came together with faith that acting as one Pine Bluff, we could be strong enough to build something that we could all be proud to call home.”

Clapback to the Critics

Two voter-approved proposals provided funding for the project. The first occurred in 2011 with the penny-for-progress initiative. Voters supported the ‘Go-Forward Pine Bluff’  initiative in 2017.

Retired Judge Marion Humphrey, a Pine Bluff native, congratulated the city on its progress.

“I’m so glad to see all of you out here today. It takes a community working together to make things happen,” Humphrey said.

To the critics of the center who cited more pressing problems as a recipient of city government funds, he responded, “There are problems all over the United States, there are problems all over the world. They’re in every community, I don’t care what economic level people are on, what the race is, what the nationality is, there are just issues. That’s all part of the human condition.”

Two High-Profile Swimmers Joined the Grand Opening

The Olympic-size swimming pool earned the praise of aspiring Paralympic athlete, Haven Shepherd. Shepherd shared how a love of the water turned her life around when she was adopted by an American family after her Vietnamese-birth parents committed murder/suicide by strapping bombs onto themselves while holding her. The fatal explosion flung little Haven from their grasp, but she lost both of her lower legs.

“The first time I smiled I was in the pool, and I loved it,” she said. “It was like a veil was opened.”

2004 Olympic Silver Medalist Maritza McClendon attended the grand opening and recounted how she started swimming to correct the curvature of her spine.  

“When my doctor recommended swimming, it was a perfect fit,” she said. “When I started doing competitive swimming, I was by no means the best athlete in the pool, it was just something I absolutely loved to do!”

It was the beginning of a career that landed McClendon in the history books. She’s no longer a competitive swimmer but mentors aspiring Olympians and encourages black children to learn how to swim.

“Sixty-four percent of Black children don’t know how to swim,” she said while also challenging parents to learn.

Dozens of children and teenagers were prepared to swim on opening day. 13-year-old Damien Patillo was one of them.

“It makes me happy,” he said.

The Pine Bluff Sharks, the city’s swim team, will utilize the Aquatic Center and have invited youth to join the team. Swimming classes for children, seniors, and all ages are being offered. For more information, visit www.cityofpinebluff.com/aquatics.