Ogden native Betty Stewart Moore loved to dance. Like other blacks growing up in the 1940s, however, she knew there were some places she wasn't allowed.

One of those places was the dance pavilion at Lagoon.

And while segregation in the 1940s frustrated local black families, it also embarrassed Lagoon operators, who were expected to enforce such measures.

"We lived with that for three years. It was terribly embarrassing," Lagoon owner Peter Freed said of the dance and swimming bans placed on blacks.

He and his three brothers were asked to enforce the regulations after reopening the park after World War II.

Moore went on to dance at Lagoon in the '50s. Born in the 1920s, she said she was one of many young black women affected by the segregation guidelines at the park.

"I loved to dance," Moore said. "I have never been real fond of swimming."

There were no signs indicating blacks were prohibited from going into the dance hall or pool at Lagoon, she said. However, black couples and families were aware where they could and could not go, she said.

"We just knew through osmosis what we could do and what we could not do," Moore said. "We just knew we were not allowed in certain places.

"We could participate on the Ferris wheel and the bumper cars. All of that was open," she said.

From 1946 to 1949, blacks were prevented from swimming or dancing at the Farmington amusement park as part of a lease covenant agreement, Freed said.

He is the lone survivor of four brothers -- Dan, David and Robert -- who began leasing and reopened the park in 1946.

Those types of lease covenants were commonplace on many properties during that period of time, he said.

"There was definitely segregation," Freed said of the covenant his late brother Robert "Bob" Freed finally convinced land owner Julian Bamberger to lift by rewriting the contract.

David J. Lesser, grandson of Bamberger, said he has no firsthand knowledge of his grandfather rewriting the Lagoon property covenant in 1949. He was 7 years old when his grandfather died.

But the Manhattan Beach, Calif., resident said he is not surprised to learn his grandfather rescinded such a "reprehensible" and "offensive" covenant. Bamberger was a Utah leader serving as a state senator, he said.

"I know my grandfather was quite courageous," Lesser said, adding he is proud his grandfather would take a leading role in doing away with segregation.

The change made by the Freed and Bamberger families went on to accelerate integration at the amusement park.

It is now one of the state's largest tourist attractions with more than a million visitors annually.

The Freed family continued to lease Lagoon through the early 1980s, when they took advantage of an opportunity to buy the park.

But it was the first three years of managing the park, Freed said, that were the most difficult as they wrestled with their consciences in having to turn blacks away from the dances and the pool.

"We would have these black families come out -- dressed better than a lot of people out here -- and we would have to approach them and tell them they could not go into the pool," Freed said.

"We felt it was absolutely wrong and a real embarrassment for us."

The same restrictions applied at the dance hall.

Freed said the park was able to book black entertainers like Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong during that time period.

However, because the entertainers performed in the dance hall, blacks were prevented from seeing the shows.

Finding overnight lodging for the black entertainers was also difficult, Freed said.

"That was really awful," he said.

But despite ongoing segregation throughout the state and the local community being predominantly white, Freed said, his family was surprised to find a community that voiced very little opposition when the restrictions against blacks were lifted in 1949.

"We practically had no objection to it once we did it. It was great," Freed said.

In the 1940s, real estate documents often contained a clause preventing certain properties from being sold, leased or rented to black families, Moore said.

The state of Utah, Moore said, wasn't any different.

"I think we have come a long way -- a long way," she said.

But Moore said -- emphasizing that she is not whining -- there are still hurdles to overcome.

Those changes could start with making what is taught during Black History Month inclusive with the U.S. history lessons being taught the whole school year. That way, she said, the respect is raised for all cultures.

"We're Americans. It is as simple as that," said Moore, who for 32 years worked at Hill Air Force Base and served on various civic boards, including the Davis County Board of Health from 1991 to 1996, then as a resident of Sunset.

South Ogden Mayor George Garwood Jr., the first black to be elected to the office of mayor in the state of Utah, agreed. He said blacks are first and foremost Americans and should be treated as such when history is taught.

It was "very common" to have blacks restricted from parks, Garwood said. He said the practice was more common in the Southern states, than in Northern or Western states.

"(The Freeds) were probably ahead of their time," Garwood said, considering the civil rights movement was still more than a decade away.

In most areas, it wasn't until the 1960s, 100 years after the Civil War, Garwood said, when the civil rights movement guaranteed the rights of blacks.

"Even today, you will find people reluctant to rent to blacks or any minority," said Garwood, who is originally from St. Louis, Mo.

But Garwood, who has lived in Utah since 1971, agrees with Moore that progress has been made.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stated he dreamed of the day his children would be judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin, Garwood said.

"I think that is happening, and we need more of it to happen," Garwood said.

The dance hall and pool no longer stand at Lagoon.

The original Lagoon dance hall burned to the ground in 1953 and was replaced by Patio Gardens, a structure that still stands on the west side of the park housing the Dracula's Castle ride and an arcade, Lagoon Vice President of Marketing Dick Andrew said.

The pool, marketed as swimming in water "fit to drink," closed in 1988, becoming a part of the Lagoon-A-Beach water park, which opened in 1989.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B5.