Category: Segregation

Monrovia Plunge Integration 1925

9/7/2025

By Félix Gutiérrez, Guest Author

On this summer’s 100th anniversary of Monrovia Municipal Plunge, now home of the Monrovia Historical Museum, it was posted online that plunge doors opened in 1925 “for swimmers of all ages”. All ages: Yes. All colors: No.

From 1925 until 1949, the Monrovia Municipal Plunge enforced segregated swimming days limiting when people of color could use the pool.

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Monrovia Plunge Integration 1930s-40s

9/7/2025

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By Félix Gutiérrez, Guest Author

Thirteen years after the Monrovia Municipal Plunge opened in 1925 with segregated swimming days, that segregation was challenged by a group led by my teenage father Félix Gutiérrez, President of the Monrovia Latin-American Youth Club and Pasadena Junior College student.

In the summer of 1938 club members presented a letter and speech urging the Monrovia City Council to end their pool segregation. This challenge and other Mexican Americans equal rights efforts are now displayed on a colorful monument on the sidewalk in front of the Monrovia Historical Museum, once the entrance to the Monrovia Municipal Plunge.

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The Principal Who Made Monrovia Better: Almera Romney

3/9/2025

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By Oliver Beckwith, MHM Board Member

At the end of World War II there were Monrovians who had lived there since the city’s incorporation in 1887. These people had seen the horse and buggy replaced by the automobile and the airplane. Monrovians had seen economic booms and busts, a Great Depression, and two World Wars. More changes would be coming to the city in terms of civil rights, and Almera Romney was one of those people who changed Monrovia for the better.

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Monrovia’s Plunge: Segregation and Civil Rights

2/8/2025

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By Oliver Beckwith, MHM Board Member

The building for the Monrovia Historical Museum is celebrating its centennial this year. Formerly the city’s municipal plunge, you can visit on any Thursday or Sunday and the docents will show you where the pool used to be. In the lobby you will find two display cases with photos and other plunge memorabilia, including the pool keeper’s record book. It’s open to the 1943 summer season page, and there, among the air and water temperatures, is a glaring reminder of Monrovia’s past. Along with the other data the word “Colored” is to be found. In that era young Black, Latino, and Asian people were only allowed in the pool on Mondays.

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Monrovia Plunge Integration 1925

Monrovia Plunge Integration 1930s-40s

The Principal Who Made Monrovia Better: Almera Romney

Monrovia’s Plunge: Segregation and Civil Rights

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Monrovia Plunge Integration 1925

Monrovia Plunge Integration 1930s-40s

The Principal Who Made Monrovia Better: Almera Romney

Monrovia’s Plunge: Segregation and Civil Rights

spotlight onmonrovia history

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spotlight on
monrovia history