Desegregation of City Parks and the Civil Rights Movement: The Case of Oak Park in Montgomery, Alabama

Abstract

This article analyzes the history of desegregation of city parks in Montgomery, Alabama. The article chronicles the sixteen-year legal battle to desegregate parks in Montgomery and the efforts of city officials to keep parks segregated, including closing all of the parks for seven years, contracting with the Montgomery YMCA to operate segregated private recreation facilities, and allowing only segregated schools to use the parks. The article explores the connection between park segregation and the Montgomery Bus Boycott and school segregation, and questions why public officials fought to keep parks segregated after other public facilities began court-ordered desegregation, and why the story of park desegregation in Montgomery is largely unknown. The article concludes with a call to confront the history of park segregation in Montgomery.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Racial Basis for Interstate Highways and Urban Renewal

“…The parks remained closed until 1965, when the city voluntarily reopened half of the parks in the city, including Oak Park. 138 The main proponent of that route was a group of African American homeowners on both sides of the park, who opposed routing the Interstate through their neighborhoods. This route was rejected as a serious option early on, although it was the most inexpensive option that ran close to downtown.…”