I first encountered her when my sister and I visited an exhibit at the Fairmount Water Works in 2022 that was called: “POOL: A Social History of Segregation.”

In the black-and-white photograph, a young Black woman named Inez Robie Patterson appeared to be captured right before she dived off the side of a pool wall. Her triceps were flexed, arms straight back with palms facing the ceiling. Her knees were bent, and her toes touched a thin, black-tiled line on the pool deck. Her hair was neatly covered in a white swim cap. Her eyebrows were beautifully thick, and her mouth formed a slight smile. Her white swimsuit had a lifeguard corps insignia, signaling her expertise in water safety.

As a Black woman, swim instructor, lifeguard and lifelong swimmer, I found myself drawn to her. My doctoral research in African American literature, history and environmental thought led me to study what I call Patterson’s “aquatic life”: the written and photographic record of her relationship to swimming.

I wanted to know: Who was this beautiful Black mermaid, and why was swimming so vital to her? How had she lifted her community?

I waded through the digital archive of The Philadelphia Tribune, the city’s oldest historically Black newspaper, to find out.

A role model for Black girl swimmers

Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1911, Patterson’s love of sports began at an early age.

As a girl, she excelled in hockey, basketball, and track and field. As a teenager at West Philadelphia High in the mid-1920s, she sharpened her swimming skills and entered a swim meet at the McCoach Recreational Center – now the Marian Anderson rec center – in South Philadelphia in September 1927. According to The........

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