GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Some people in Gaston County are learning to swim for the first time in generations of family members thanks to a program that’s working to combat high drowning rates in the Black community.
Tarsha Beam is taking the plunge for the first time, something she says none of her family members have done to her knowledge.
“I can go back to at least five generations where I am the first swimmer,” Beam told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon.
She has a fear of water that she says was passed down over decades. She says that fear is not uncommon in the Black community.
“I remember taking my grandma to be beach,” she said. “She would not get in the water.”
The reasons for the fear vary, depending on who you talk to. Some say Black people didn’t have access to pools and were banned from many public pools until about 40 years ago. Some say it is a fear imparted during slavery. For many reasons, the water’s edge generally became a dividing line.
Donna Groot Taylor and her husband, Mark, are volunteers with Gaston Aquatics. They said they didn’t know about what was happening in the Black community until the subject came up with friends.
“I truly thought everybody swam,” Donna Taylor said.
According to North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services, from 2019 to 2023 Black people drowned at a rate far higher than white and Hispanic people and accounted for 28% of all drowning deaths.
“I felt like this is something that we really need to address,” Mark Taylor said.
Together, they got a grant to train people in underserved communities. They said many people were hesitant about even putting their heads below water, including Beam, but after generations of avoiding water, she became the first swimmer in her family to complete a lap alone.
“It is life changing,” she said. “Now we’ve turned the tide because now my children will swim. So it’s a generational thing that had to be broken.”
One swimmer who trained with the Taylors told Lemon that facing the deep end is like conquering a fear that held your entire family captive and made you doubt yourself, but that fear will not keep Beam sidelined.
“We have the capabilities,” she said. “We have the mentality.”
Beam felt so empowered by her experience that she has joined the board of directors of Gaston Aquatics to share that joy with others.