The Long and Victorious Fight to Integrate the N.Y.C. Fire Department with Ginger Adams Otis , Staff Writer for the N.Y. Daily News and author of Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York's Bravest
In 1919, when Wesley Williams became a New York City firefighter, he stepped into a world that was 100% white and predominantly Irish. Nearly a century later, many things in the FDNY had changed--but not the scarcity of blacks. N.Y.C. had about 300 black firefighters--roughly 3 percent of the 11,000 firefighters in a city of two million African Americans.. Decades earlier, women and blacks had sued over its hiring practices and won. But the FDNY never took permanent steps to eradicate the inequities, which led to a courtroom show-down between N.Y.C.'s billionaire Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and a determined group of black activist firefighters members of the Vulcan Society. They also faced an insular culture made up of relatives who never saw their own inclusion as favoritism. It was not until 2014 that the city settled the $98 million lawsuit. At the center of this book are stories of courage--about firefighters risking their lives in the line of duty but also risking their livelihood by battling an unjust system.. Among them: FDNY Captain Paul Washington, a second generation black firefighter, who spent his multi-decade career fighting to get equality on the job.
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
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