{"id":442173,"date":"2020-07-30T12:18:58","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T19:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=442173"},"modified":"2020-07-30T12:18:58","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T19:18:58","slug":"passages-mimi-jones-activist-in-famous-swim-in-photo-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/passages-mimi-jones-activist-in-famous-swim-in-photo-73\/","title":{"rendered":"Passages: Mimi Jones, Activist in Famous Swim-In Photo, 73"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mimi Jones<\/strong>, an activist who was appeared in an infamous 1964 photograph that played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement, died this week at age 73<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a teenager who grew up in Georgia, Jones took part in various demonstrations as part of the Civil Rights Movement, including the 1963 March on Washington. The following year, she traveled to St. Augustine, Florida to participate in a swim-in, where she and fellow activists (white and black) rented rooms at the segregated Monson Motor Lodge. When she and others swam in the pool, an overlooked front in the battle against segregation<\/a>, the motel owner poured acid into the water, a striking image captured on film<\/a> with the 17-year-old Jones screaming as the suited motel manager dumped the clear liquid into the pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put on our bathing suits, and we went to the pool, and we jump into the pool,\u201d Jones told WGBH-TV in 2017<\/a>. ” … I could barely breathe. It was entering my nose and my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe water bubbled up like a volcano right in front of my face,\u201d she told the Boston Globe<\/em> in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The day after the photo made the rounds of the nation, President Lyndon B. Johnson<\/strong> pushed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cMimi did it because she thought it was something that needed to be done,\u201d Sarah-Ann Shaw,<\/strong> a pioneering Black female reporter who had worked for WBZ-TV, told the Globe<\/em>. \u201cShe was not frightened. And she was a kid, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mimi Jones died Sunday at her home in Roxbury, Massachusetts. She had worked for the state\u2019s department of education. Her death drew recognition from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh<\/strong> and Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted social justice,\u201d Mimi Jones’s son, Gervase<\/strong>, said. \u201cShe was a fighter for equal justice, for civil rights. She was a student of human nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

“She was someone who was such an inspiring encourager,\u201d Rev. Emmett G. Price III<\/strong> told WBUR<\/a>, remembering how Jones \u201ctook so much care and trained up all of us who are activists, who are advocates. And it didn\u2019t matter what your concern was, or even what your belief was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cMimi did it because she thought it was something that needed to be done,\u201d Shaw added.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was not frightened. And she was a kid, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rest in power, Mimi Jones. https:\/\/t.co\/zfkN0raHNe<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) July 28, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n