--- title: The History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach description: Short documentary about Velma and Norman Hill, who confronted mob violence to integrate Chicago's beaches during the civil rights movement. canonical: https://time.com/7008124/history-segregated-beaches-chicago/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-08-08T15:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T18:05:45.176Z article:section: History og:title: The History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach og:description: Velma and Norman Hill confronted mob violence to integrate Chicago's beaches during the civil rights movement. og:url: https://time.com/7008124/history-segregated-beaches-chicago/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81607a69a8766370/698a59a3b3fce3e28e0cd760/Freedom-Waders-No-Title-Main-Photo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: Freedom-Waders-No-Title-Main-Photo.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach twitter:description: Velma and Norman Hill confronted mob violence to integrate Chicago's beaches during the civil rights movement. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81607a69a8766370/698a59a3b3fce3e28e0cd760/Freedom-Waders-No-Title-Main-Photo.jpg?branch=production ---  # Segregated Beaches in Chicago; the History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Aug 8, 2024 3:00 PM UTC  by [TIME Video](https://time.com/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video Aug 8, 2024 3:00 PM UTC Freedom Waders is a short documentary by Alex S. Hinton about Velma and Norman Hill, who confronted mob violence to integrate Chicago's beaches at the height of the civil rights movement. The History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7008124/history-segregated-beaches-chicago/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7008124/history-segregated-beaches-chicago/"},"headline":"Segregated Beaches in Chicago; the History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach","datePublished":"2024-08-08T15:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T18:05:45.176Z","description":"Freedom Waders is a short documentary by Alex S. Hinton about Velma and Norman Hill, who confronted mob violence to integrate Chicago's beaches at the height of the civil rights movement.","url":"https://time.com/7008124/history-segregated-beaches-chicago/","keywords":["Civil Rights","video"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81607a69a8766370/698a59a3b3fce3e28e0cd760/Freedom-Waders-No-Title-Main-Photo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt81607a69a8766370/698a59a3b3fce3e28e0cd760/Freedom-Waders-No-Title-Main-Photo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Freedom-Waders-No-Title-Main-Photo.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/civil-rights/","name":"Civil Rights"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7008124/history-segregated-beaches-chicago/","name":"Segregated Beaches in Chicago; the History of the Freedom Waders at Rainbow Beach"}}]}] ```