Recreation and River Park ,
’ were legally segrega ted from u n til . But that didn’t stop kids of all backgrounds from playing together.“We didn’t understand racial disharmony,” said Southwester Gene Cherri co of his childhood on Sixth Street in the s . Everybody was equal. Everybody was poor.” Yet playground monitors were instructed to keep the races apart.On the block bounded by Delaware Avenue and Canal Street is today’s King-Greenleaf Playground, formerly the white-only Hoover Playground that sat amid a largely black neighbor- hood. Randall Playground,some five blocks north off Delaware Avenue and H Street,was operated for black children.The children often ignored the rules to play together. For adults, though, social time was more segrega ted. When public housing first opened here,residents met in social and self-improvement groups such as the Syphax Homemakers Club. Long past the court-ordered end to segregation in public accommodations, the adults of Sout hwest found entertainment on their own sides of the Fourth Street dividing line. African Am ericans enjoyed Bruce Wahl’s restaurant and summertime beer garden at Fourth and C streets. Whites gathered at waterf ront watering holes such as Hall’s Restaurant,at Seventh and K. Founded in , Hall’s had been a favorite of General U.S. Grant. The townhouses and highrises of River Park were designed by architect Charles M. Goodman, who worked with Reynolds Metals to feature aluminum in its unique concept for urban residential archi- tecture.When River Park opened as a cooperative in ,its tenants worked to ensure an integrated population. From the beginning, the residents together have made decisions governing the use and care of the River Park facilities.
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