Overview

For many African Americans, getting a public sector job has historically been one of the few paths to the financial stability of the middle class, and in New York City, few such jobs were as sought-after as positions in the fire department (FDNY). For over a century, generations of Black New Yorkers have fought to gain access to and equal opportunity within the FDNY. Tracing this struggle for jobs and justice from 1898 to the present, David Goldberg details the ways each generation of firefighters confronted overt and institutionalized racism. An important chapter in the histories of both Black social movements and independent workplace organizing, this book demonstrates how Black firefighters in New York helped to create affirmative action from the ""bottom up,"" while simultaneously revealing how white resistance to these efforts shaped white working-class conservatism and myths of American meritocracy. Full of colorful characters and rousing stories drawn from oral histories, discrimination suits, and the archives of the Vulcan Society (the fraternal society of Black firefighters in New York), this book sheds new light on the impact of Black firefighters in the fight for civil rights.

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9781469661469

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Reviews

Traces the shifting arguments made by the workers and the politicians who sought to transform an agency that was fiercely opposed to transformation.--Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker Provides a relentless display of facts, figures, and insights in narrating this black labor resistance to intransigent white supremacy. He does so with an able collection of archival evidence, oral histories, and a survey of secondary literature, all told as a gripping story that includes some memorable individuals and concludes with a qualified upbeat ending--at least for now.--American Historical Review It is this history of segregation, and of resistance to it, that Goldberg chronicles masterfully, from firehouse fistfights to fraternal organizations to federal litigation.--Gotham Center for New York History Works hard to remind us, powerfully at times, about black firefighters' courage, persistent struggle against discrimination, and efforts to work the system for greater racial equity.--Journal of American History A welcome contribution to literature on race and labor in American cities. . . . Goldberg reminds us how central public employment has been to the economic and political struggles of African Americans over the past century.--Journal of African American History

Author Information

David Goldberg is associate professor of African American studies at Wayne State University.

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