Naismith had "strong feelings against segregation," dating back to his World War I-era service in France and his service on the United States-Mexico border, and he strove for progress in race relations through modest steps. During the 1930s, he would not or could not get African-Americans onto Kansas' varsity Jayhawks, but he did help engineer the admission of black students to the university's swimming pool. Until then, they had been given automatic passing grades on a required swimming test without entering the pool, so it could remain all-white.