On Sunday, June 2, 2019 from noon to 4 p.m. the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center (CRHC) will offer a children-centered experience that asks youth to imagine the Best Future Ever. The event is part of South Bend Venue, Parks and Arts Best Week Ever celebration.
Best Future Ever invites children and their families to engage in activities that look toward the future. On a wall outside the former Engman Public Natatorium, children will be asked to put their name on a tree that contains images and information about leaders of the past. Volunteer readers will select multi-cultural stories about civil rights movements to read to children. Participants will be able to take home free books courtesy of a donation by Better World Book including those translated into Spanish and additional languages courtesy of the IU South Bend College of Liberal Arts and Science’s Translate for Toddlers program. Kids can also make a bead bracelets and the IU South Bend Vera Z. Dwyer College of Health Sciences will be on site with information about how families can keep themselves safe and healthy.
The CRHC is located at 1040 West Washington Street in South Bend. This event is free and open to the public.
The CRHC is located on the site of the former Engman Public Natatorium which opened in 1922 as a South Bend city owned and operated swimming pool. In spite of the word public carved in concrete atop the entrance, African Americans were denied entry from 1922 until it integrated in 1950. Today, the site is the home of the CRHC and is used to explore the history of marginalization and oppression and the ways it manifests itself today. For more information visit crhc.iusb.edu.
