10690: Chicago’s New Black Firefighters.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

Time for celebration: Black firefighter candidates graduate

By Fran Spielman | City Hall Reporter

Seventeen years is a long time to wait to realize a dream, but it was worth it for Jerry Jones III.

On Thursday, Jones strode across the grand ballroom stage at Navy Pier, shook hands with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other dignitaries and proudly joined the family of Chicago firefighters that includes Jones’ father, a retired assistant commissioner who attended the graduation in his old uniform.

Jones, 40, is one of 98 new firefighters, 86 of whom had been waiting for the chance to join the Chicago Fire Department since 1995. They are among nearly 6,000 African-Americans bypassed by the city’s discriminatory handling of a 1995 firefighters entrance exam.

The oldest man was 56. The oldest woman was 54. The candidates admit there was a lot of huffing and puffing as they made it through the grueling fire academy training.

“It was challenging at times, but everything happens for a reason. I just took it to mean this is my time and that time was probably not the best time for me to come” on the job, said Jones, who was working as a cement finisher when the legal odyssey ended.

“I did four years in the Marine Corps. I got out in 1995 to take the test. I didn’t re-up because of the test. But, I’m probably more ready now than I was back then. Psychologically, I understand it’s more than a good idea because your dad did it. And I hold the sense of duty a little bit more dear than the benefits.”

Jones said he never once thought about taking a cash settlement as high as $11,000 over the chance to work for the Fire Department.

“I have a son behind me who’s gonna be old enough to test in a couple of years, so I might want to show him the way. And I get joy out of helping other people,” he said.

Arguing that the Chicago Fire Department should be “as diverse as the city it defends,” Emanuel relished the opportunity to close the book on an injustice, he said, never should have taken 17 years to correct.

When results of the ’95 exam were disappointing for minorities, the city established a cut-off score of 89 and hired randomly from the top 1,800 “well-qualified” candidates.

In 2005, a federal judge ruled that had the effect of perpetuating the predominantly white status quo because 78 percent of those “well-qualified” candidates were white.

Instead of accepting the ruling, hiring the 111 bypassed black candidates and compensating thousands of others, former Mayor Richard M. Daley fought the lawsuit on a technicality.

The city gave up the fight, only after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agreed in 2010 that African-American candidates did not wait too long before filing their lawsuit.

“The arc of history always bends towards justice,” Emanuel told the graduates. “Today is what Dr. [Martin Luther] King meant when he said you would not be judged by the color of your skin but by the content of your character.”

The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week it will cost Chicago taxpayers $78.4 million to settle the case — twice as much as anticipated — and that Chicago will borrow the money, compounding the cost.

But, Thursday was not about the money. It was about dreams.

“When you deal with something painful from the past, justice is served by being upfront about it. We are a stronger city for having dealt with it,” the mayor said.

“Dreams are deferred but never defeated. After two decades we are correcting that mistake, and it is my hope that we never, ever make that mistake again. The Chicago Fire Department should be as diverse as the city it defends.”

The mayor advised the middle-aged firefighters that they bear a special responsibility for getting a long-delayed chance that thousands of others never got.

“This is a symbolic class. You carry that burden Do not let that go to waste,” he said.

No chance of that fo rookie firefighter Sherman Taylor, who waited for justice while working as a civilian lock-up employee at the Chicago Police Department.

“It was very, very hard, mainly because I hadn’t been to school in so long and I went from being in authority to having [to answer to authority] like I was when I was 18 years old,” said Taylor, 43.

“It wasn’t easy. Body don’t heal as fast. But, I feel like it was my calling. All we wanted was a chance — and we got it. Seventeen years later, but we did it.”

Fellow graduate Andre Williams, 46, who worked as a painter while waiting, added, “I’ve always wanted to be a firefighter since I was a little kid. Every little boy wants to be a firefighter. Some don’t give it up. So, this is a dream come true.”

The Rev. Dr. Zenobia Brooks was bursting with pride as she watched her 44-year-old son, Frank Edward Harris, shake the mayor’s hand.

“He stands on the shoulders of his ancestors, who have been discriminated against for many, many generations. So, this was so important to him. … He has two African-American sons. This means, if he can achieve it, they can achieve it,” she said.

9186: Rescue Me From Racism.

From The New York Daily News…

Racism rampant in the FDNY says ex-Vulcan Society president Paul Washington

By Oren Yaniv, Daily News Staff Writer

The New York Fire Department is so racism-riddled that just weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, someone defaced a flyer honoring the black Bravest who died, an FDNY captain testified Monday.

The flyer, announcing a memorial service for black firefighters, was posted on a bulletin board at the Ladder 131 firehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Somebody scrawled, “What about the white guys?” and added a list of black entertainers, including The Jackson 5, Gary Coleman, Fat Albert, Tupac Shakur and Sean Combs.

The word “black” was written over the request that guests wear a dress uniform “with white gloves.”

“It speaks for itself,” said Capt. Paul Washington, 49, former president of the Vulcan Society, a fraternal organization for black firefighters.

He said that after he intervened, a white firefighter came forward to take responsibility and was punished “in an unofficial manner.”

Washington was testifying in Brooklyn Federal Court in the third week of a federal discrimination trial against the department.

The 23-year veteran recalled how, as a young firefighter in the mid-1990s, he overheard the men in an all-white firehouse use the N-word to describe whoever was assigned to do that day’s menial tasks, like mopping up a spill.

He said complaining about racial incidents would lead a firefighter to be “effectively ostracized” by his colleagues.

“You’re going to be shunned,” he said. “Things like this can be very hurtful to your career.”

Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis has previously ruled the last two FDNY entry exams discriminatory and barred the city from recruiting new hires over the past three years.

The Vulcan Society is asking him to monitor the FDNY as it reforms its practices. It also seeks damages for those harmed by an alleged hiring bias.

New York’s population is 26% black but only 3% of firefighters are black, the plaintiffs say.

Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano testified last week that the department is working successfully to recruit more minority-group members.

Much of Monday’s testimony was dedicated to outlining the many benefits of being a firefighter - which the plaintiffs say are being denied to minority-group members.

The perks include an extremely flexible schedule, free time while on duty and the satisfaction of helping others.

Michael Marshall, who has been on the job for nearly 30 years, recounted the community’s appreciation, from his doctor - who would never accept a co-pay - to a man who offered him a cartload of vodka as a token of gratitude.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than saving a life,” Marshall said.

Essay 4939

From The New York Times…

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Firehouse Dispute Raises Racial Tension in St. Louis

By MALCOLM GAY

ST. LOUIS — An African-American firefighter’s complaint that he found a stuffed monkey hanging by its neck in his firehouse last month has become a stark reminder of this city’s troubled racial legacy.

Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently ruled out a hate crime in its inquiry into the complaint, the incident has pitted many of the city’s black firefighters, who say the toy was meant to evoke a lynching, against their white colleagues, who say the monkey was simply hung up to dry after being found at a fire scene.

That explanation has not satisfied Capt. Addington Stewart, chairman of the Firefighter’s Institute for Racial Equality, a fraternal organization that represents all but a few of the department’s more than 300 black employees. “What I know is what I saw,” Captain Stewart said, describing a strap wrapped around the neck of a stuffed monkey dangling from a coat hanger. “I take that to be unconscionable.”

The episode might have remained an internal squabble were it not for the recent demotion of the city’s first African-American fire chief, Sherman George, which came after Mr. George publicly refused demands by Mayor Francis G. Slay to promote a group of mainly white firefighters. Many of the city’s black leaders have lined up behind the former chief, who resigned soon after being demoted.

In demoting Mr. George, some of those leaders said, Mr. Slay brought St. Louis race relations to a new low. Some started a petition drive in support of a mayoral recall.

“Sherman George was an African-American in one of the highest positions in the mayor’s administration — he was an icon,” said Alderman Terry Kennedy, chairman of the Aldermanic Black Caucus. “To push him out like that? You’re not doing anything but causing trouble.”

The current controversy has its roots in a lawsuit filed in 2004 by a group of black firefighters who raised accusations of racial bias in the promotion examinations for firefighters.

[Read the full story here.]