Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center Oral History Project


[Odie Mae Streets]: Well, at Central Senior High, black girls were not allowed to take swimming classes. So, one day I told my friend Cecilia, I said, “We’re going to sign up.” I said, “We have a right to take swimming classes just like everyone else.” And she didn’t want to go and be rejected. Then I kept after, and she still wouldn’t go. I said, “Well I’m going to sign up, and they will have to tell me I can’t.” Well, anyway, it passed on, and I did take swimming lessons. But it was quite a few years before the general class was open to all children.