When Latrice Rose-Moore thinks of childhood summers, she remembers the small kiddie pool in her yard fondly, but also that her family didn’t go to the Allegheny County wave pool or any Pittsburgh city pools during the hottest months.
For years, Rose-Moore didn’t swim. The lack of exposure to the water growing up made her wary, and by the time she reached adulthood, the wariness had turned into fear.
She isn’t alone in this, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reports that 64% of Black children and 36.8% of Black adults can’t swim. The nation counts around 4,000 unintentional drowning deaths a year, and Black children are around three times more likely to drown than their white counterparts…