It is often said that those who are unaware of history are destined to repeat it. With diversity issues being on the minds of many in a country that has elected its first Black President and at the forefront of the minds of many business leaders who consistently speak of diversity being a business imperative, diversity issues should also be at the forefront of the minds of St. Louisans.
This is especially true when it comes to the St. Louis Fire Department. The St. Louis Fire Department has a rich and storied history—but it is also one filled with racial tension.
While the Fire Department made many advances in terms of diversity since its establishment more than 150 years ago, in recent years, we have witnessed the demotion of the first Black Fire Chief, we have witnessed a qualified Black Deputy Chief be passed over for the job of Fire Chief and we have witnessed a steady erosion in the number of Black firefighters.
We are on the verge of seeing history repeat itself, of seeing much of the diversity progress in the St. Louis Fire Department disappear and of returning to the fire department of the past. The one that had such a dearth of diversity that it took a federal judge to order the department to increase the hiring of Black firefighters.
If business leaders can understand the importance of diversity in their corporations, we, as a community, must ask city leaders why they cannot understand the importance of having a fire department that reflects the citizens it serves and why diversity in the St. Louis fire department is floundering and not flourishing.
The city of St. Louis established its fire department in 1857. It was a time when many Black Americans in this country were enslaved, so it’s certainly not surprising to learn that the St. Louis Fire Department was all-white.
In 1865, eight years after the fire department was established, the 13th Amendment to the constitution officially made slavery illegal. It took 56 more years, but finally in 1921, the St. Louis Fire Department hired its first Black firefighter.
Progress, sure. But progress was slow. From there, it would take more than 20 years for the number of Black firefighters to exceed 15. And by the 1950s and the number of Black firefighters remained dismal.
For those who were lucky enough to be hired, racism ensured that they would be the recipients of heinous treatment. They lived under the tremendous burdens of constant, virulent, racist assaults. They were assaulted verbally by their superiors who hurled racist epithets.
They were corralled into inferior accommodations at the engine houses and they were forced to join the union—the union that then used their dues to hire attorneys to fight against the hiring and promotion of Black firefighters.
In the 1960s, with the civil rights movement in full swing, Black firefighters in St. Louis made the historic and fearless decision to leave the union. Wendell H. Goins has said “giving the local union our dues money was just like giving somebody the money to buy bats and bullets to bust us upside the head with!”
Goins was one of several men who helped to organize the establishment of F.I.R.E.-the Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality, in 1967.
By the early 1970s, little had changed for Black firefighters. From the time the first Black firefighter was hired more than 50 years earlier, there had never been more than four Black Captains on the Fire Department. This was not by coincidence, but by design. A Black private was only promoted to Captain if one of the existing four Black Captains retired, was fired or died.
Still, in the 1970s, those four Captains positions were treasured, considering the fact that no Black firefighter held a rank higher than that. Of the 1,000 or so members of the fire department at that time, about 110—11 percent – were Black. Of the 180 Captains, four were Black. This at a time when the population of the city was about 40 percent Black.
F.I.R.E. had had enough and filed a civil lawsuit against the city alleging racial discrimination in, among other things, the hiring and promotion practices of the fire department. As a result, the city entered into a consent decree with F.I.R.E. and the U.S. Department of Justice, agreeing to hire one Black firefighter for every White firefighter hired, in an effort to remedy the disparity in Black representation in the fire department.
And in 1976, the court agreed with F.I.R.E, finding that the entry-level hiring test had a disparate impact upon Black applicants and had not been shown to be related to job performance. F.I.R.E. became the first Black firefighter organization in the country to win a discrimination lawsuit against a city.
F.I.R.E.’s victory was a major turning point for diversity in the St. Louis Fire Department, as the next 20 years brought a drastic change in the hiring and retention of Black firefighters. By the 1990s, a time when the city’s population was nearly 50 percent Black, the fire department came closer than ever to reflecting demographics of the citizens it served. The number of Black firefighters went from 11 percent to 40 percent, Black Captains increased from 2 percent to 32 percent.
There was upward mobility as well as Black firefighters were promoted to ranks they’d never achieved. Ten of the fire department’s 20 Battalion Chiefs were Black and three of the four Deputy Chiefs were Black. For the first time ever, the fire department began to resemble the makeup of the city of St. Louis. And in 1999, Sherman George became the first Black Fire Chief in our city’s history.
And yet, today, much of that progress has been virtually eliminated.
While diversity is a business imperative for area CEOs, there is a litany of evidence that is far from a priority for the city of St. Louis when it comes to the fire department. Consider the facts.
In 2007, Sherman George was demoted after refusing to make promotions that were based on a testing process that he had insisted from the beginning was flawed. The most highly qualified candidate to replace him, Deputy Chief Charles Coyle, was passed over for the job in favor of a lower ranking, white candidate. Chief Coyle filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination and jurors agreed with him 11 to 1 and ordered the city to pay $350,000.
The racial makeup of the fire department has also taken drastic steps backwards. Today only about one in four Captains are Black. Though 50 percent of Battalion Chiefs were Black in the 1990s, today only 15 percent are Black. And of the five Deputy Chiefs, only Chief Coyle is Black.
It has become common practice for the graduating classes of new firefighters to include only a handful of blacks. All this in a time where the population of the City of St. Louis is 48 percent Black.
Last year, in the pages of this newspaper, the chancellor of Washington University was quoted as saying, “Ours will only be the best climate for social, emotional and intellectual growth and achievement if we are all committed to diversity and inclusiveness.”
In an era where business leaders and academics preach consistently about the importance of diversity, it’s crystal clear that something is wrong in the St. Louis Fire Department. Our country is more racially diverse today than ever in its history. The business world, academia and yes, public safety should reflect that. The St. Louis Fire Department should be a microcosm of the community it serves.
This is not to say that unqualified Black applicants should be hired or promoted. But it is to say that it is, at best, extremely difficult to believe that the city of St. Louis is doing everything it can to attract qualified Black candidates and to retain qualified Black firefighters.
F.I.R.E. is working with other fire service executives and community leaders to empower the black community with the additional tools that will help more of us to take control of our lives. Out of the 50 largest urban cities, St. Louis, in 2010, ranked third in unemployment amongst African-Americans at 16.9 percent. That’s why we are partnering to start the African American Fire Service Institute to help provide more black applicants with the tools necessary to be job ready for employment opportunities on the St. Louis Fire Department.
F.I.R.E. is the oldest public safety civil rights organization in the state. We believe we have pushed the Fire Department to some historic breakthroughs and we remain dedicated to assuring fairness and equal treatment in the hiring practices of the Fire Department. But this is not a battle we can fight without the support of our community and without your voices being in unison with ours.
We challenge the City, the Department of Personnel, other community groups, as well as the elected officials to join F.I.R.E. in its efforts to empower the black community with the skills and abilities to be hired, retained once they are hired, and the ability to move up through promotion.
Diversity matters. It’s time for our city’s leaders to take a look at the St. Louis Fire Department and prove that.
