Did Kennywood Park Really Close its Pool because of the Civil Rights Act?

With Covid 19 Flu Virus afoot many activity's by the public are limited and many venues like amusement parks wonder if they will even be able to open this year.
Kennywood Park near Pittsburgh being one of them. 

Which brought back some memories of when I was a kid and an unsubstantiated rumor  about Kennywood Park and its Pool

I remember the pool it was gigantic and got to swim at it when I was a little kid in early 60s

It had an island in the middle with slides and diving boards etc. But then one summer it was gone
and it closed the year after the Civil Rights Act eliminated Jim Crow era rules and Blacks could now swim at the pool.

Some in the community claimed the pool closed because blacks could now swim there and while some may have seen it as a good thing and the reason the pool closed.

The real reason is the pool was leaking substantial amounts of water and improvements needed to fix the leaks and  stay current with health regulations where prohibitive . That,s the official story of the park but i dug up this on internet

Why did Kennywood pool close?

A riot broke out when a fair skinned family friend brought her dark-skinned husband onto the floor after she initially passed for white. Eventually Kennywood was sued in court to integrate the pool and lost, but instead of complying they simply closed the pool.

Kennywood was not the only privately owned public pool to close around that time in the 60s.

 So did Glen Burke in Monroeville and Blue Dell further out US22 .

and Piney Fork  near South Park.

All of these pools where losing money and where having serious maintenance issues.  as well as a drop in attendance as above ground pools became cheaper to install and more attractive than having to get in a car and drive some where and then pay to get in.
Where some of the attendance issues Racists related absolutely I heard several people say they would not allow their children to swim with blacks.  which just compounded the issues.

So was the pool closed over the civil rights act appears so. But the civil Rights Act was one of many factors saw its demise as well as the others .

In fact the last 20 years there are only a small group of Privately owned public pools still operating
many closed after heath regulations became more stringent and liability insurance costs got out of hand due to fraudulent lawsuits which was also a problem for Kennywood. 

Plus new ADA rules requiring a ramp or lift to allow Wheel Chair bound individuals to swim have become too expensive to comply with.

When you go into a store and see all the cameras all over the place do you think its for shoplifting ?

No its to protect the business  from  slip and fall and other fraudulent lawsuits .
and that's a dam shame.

https://pittsburgh.momcollective.com/parenting-perspectives/pittsburgh-jim-crow/