Viola Gibson led the charge to desegregate Cedar Rapids’ Ellis Pool

Viola Gibson knew it was wrong that Black children and teenagers, like her nephew, weren't allowed to swim in Ellis Pool in Cedar Rapids.

So in 1942, she helped reactivate the Cedar Rapids branch of the NAACP - a civil rights organization that advocates for the rights of Black Americans - and led the effort to desegregate the pool.

Desegregation at the pool happened slowly and in pieces, according to the City of Cedar Rapids website. First, the city allowed Black people to swim at Ellis Pool at certain times, but Gibson, the NAACP and others who fought against racial discrimination kept pushing. Eventually, the pool was equally open to all.

Gibson was a champion for racial justice in Cedar Rapids for most of her life. She led a campaign to convince Iowa congressmen to support the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made racial and other kinds of discrimination illegal. She was the first person to offer Black history classes to adults in Iowa, and she pushed for Black history to be taught in Cedar Rapids Community School District classrooms.

Years after her death in 1989, the school district honored Gibson - who was enrolled in Cedar Rapids Schools herself as a kid - by naming a new elementary school after her in 2002.

Comments: molly.duffy@thegazette.com