If you attended the 66th annual Founder’s Day Banquet for the Fayetteville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, I’m sure you were educated about the plight and history of African American firefighters in this country. The instructor came in the form of guest speaker Rev. Dorothy Anderson, pastor of Fletcher Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Laurinburg. The banquet was held in the Lewis Chapel Community Center on Old Bunce Road.
Anderson recalled incidents when racial hatred almost stopped African American firefighters from existing at all. "As early as 1818, the Philadelphia African Fire Association tried to create a black fire company. But the city’s white firefighters were against it, so it didn’t happen." Imagine being an African American firefighter responding to a house fire, on the way you also get word that there is a great the risk of the family losing priceless items. Once you get there, the homeowner stops you from going inside because of your race—hard to believe? That’s just one example of the brick walls African American fire fighters and to hurdle before they gained acceptance and respect from everyday citizens as well as fellow firefighters.
Unfortunately, the same injustices that plagued the workplace in other professions didn’t escape the world of the firemen. It was the same all over the country. "Black firefighters of the distant past were unseen, unappreciated and allowed to fade away unnoticed," Anderson said. She applauded firefighters throughout history, and encouraged members of the Fayetteville NAACP, alongside people of all races, to continue their fight to help douse the "flames of racism."
According to Anderson, it wasn’t until 1970 that African American as well as firefighters of other ethnicities developed the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters. "The need for an International Association of Black Professional Firefighters is a reminder that the flames that burn away dignity, scorch hope and dreams and char the soul were still burning in 1970." 2006 and still underrepresented
"On 9/11, 12 black firefighters lost their lives in the World Trade Center attack," she said. "Their heroism went virtually unnoticed and un-applauded." She said minority firefighters are still underrepresented and underappreciated in departments across the United States.
The banquet honored a group of African American volunteer firefighters from Fayetteville who asked in 1947 to continue volunteering even though the city had created a paid white fire department. C.R. Miller, along with seven other African American firefighters, wrote that letter to the fire committee C.R. Miller was the president of the North Carolina Colored Volunteer Fireman’s Association at the time. Not surprisingly, the plan to pay white fire departments excluded the African American firefighters. Not long after the committee read the letter, the "black fire company" , as it was called then, was given $150 a year to continue their training.
The families of John W. "Will" Archie and his son, John W. Archie Jr., two of those firefighters who signed the letter, came to the banquet and donated a painting of Fayetteville Fire Station # 2.
J.W. "Will" Archie, 66, died in 1948 after being struck on Bragg Boulevard by a car that was by driven by Charles Dawkins; Archie suffered a fractured leg and a head injury. A copy of the 1947 letter from African American firefighters to the city of Fayetteville and a photograph of John W. "Will" Archie can be viewed online. You can also learn more about the history of the African American firemen in North Carolina at http://hometown.aol.com/fireriter1/
Because of the sacrifices of both black and white firefighters in America, advances have been made in America and in fire departments across this country.
