The City Council will rename the Barton Springs bathhouse after the first Black woman to jump in the springs in 1960. 

Joan Means Khabele was part of one of the first integrated classes at Austin High School in the 1950s. On a school trip to Barton Springs, she jumped into the springs to protest the segregation of the pool  — not just once, but every week for the rest of the summer with her other Black classmates. 

Two years later, Austin desegregated Barton Springs. 

Austin will rename the bathhouse “Joan Means Khabele Bathhouse at Barton Springs Pool” in an attempt to recognize Austin’s full history, council member Paige Ellis said in Thursday’s city council meeting. 

“This is not a hundred years ago,” Ellis said in the meeting. “This is a very real part of our history that we have to confront. We have to continue to make sure that this bathhouse functions for everybody that needs to use it.”

This resolution came at the perfect time, Ellis said, as it follows the bathhouse’s rehabilitation project earlier this year.  The city previously honored Khabele’s accomplishments in a ceremonial moment of silence in 2022, almost a year after her passing. 

The renaming process started in August 2023 when former Barton Springs lifeguard Scott Cobb first introduced the proposal. Before reaching the City Council, the city Parks and Recreation Board unanimously voted to rename it at a Feb. 26 meeting, during which Khabele’s relatives spoke.  

“I believe it is important to rename the bathhouse in her honor because it is important to acknowledge the contributions of Black Austinites,” said Lesedi Khabele-Stevens, Khabele’s granddaughter, in the Feb. 26 meeting. “To take that a step further, not acknowledging Austin’s history in regards to racism and segregation and those who fought against it contributes to the gentrification and erasure of Black people in Austin.”