Stentorians

Arnett Hartsfield, Jr. (died November 1, 2014 at age 95) was the co-founder of the Stentorians organization.[6] He served as an Army lieutenant during WWII in a segregated unit. He became a firefighter and later an instructor. Hartsfield was appointed to the LAFD in 1940 and retired after 20 years working at Old Station 30 in south Los Angeles. While firefighting, he used the GI Bill to return to school and attended both UCLA and USC, earning a law degree in 1955. He retired in 1961 from the LAFD to practice law full-time. He fought to integrate the LAFD. He also served as the historian at the Fire Station No. 30, Engine Company No. 30, where he spent 10 hours a week volunteering. His was the generation of black "firsts", many of whom are remembered for the integration fights that led the full appearance of the Civil Rights Movement in America. He was later appointed Civil Service commissioner by Mayor Tom Bradley and served as "Fire Chief for a Day", achieving the chance at promotion he felt he was unfairly denied while a firefighter.[6]

On December 6, 1888, a black man, Sam Haskins, born a slave in 1840 from Virginia, was listed in the census as an employed fireman for the city of Los Angeles, assigned to Engine Company #4. In 1892 Haskins was appointed as a Call Man and assigned to Engine #2, making him the first black man hired by the Los Angeles Fire Department. Haskins was fatally injured on November 19, 1895 while responding to a fire call on 1st Street. When the steamer he was riding on hit a bump in the road, Haskins lost his balance and fell between the steamer's boiler and the wheel. He was the first firefighter of any race to die on duty with the Los Angeles Fire Department.[8]

The second black fireman, George Bright, was appointed to the Department two years later, on September 21, 1897. Three years later he was assigned to the newly segregated Hose Company #4 on Loma Drive near Beverly Blvd.[9] That is where all subsequent black firefighters were sent, following the Supreme Court ruling in Plessy vs. Ferguson that established "separate but equal" as the law of the land.

In 1900, William Glenn was hired as the third black fireman in the LAFD. He subsequently left to become the 3rd black patrolman in the LAPD.

The battle for integration began with the mayoral election of 1953. Norris Poulson, the newly-elected mayor, wanted to install his own fire chief, and sought a pretext to oust the current head of the LAFD, fire chief engineer John Alderson. A month after taking office, he was given a petition backed by the NAACP[10] that protested that the LAFD did not represent the people it served because it was not integrated.[11] Poulson, who was against fair employment practices, sought to use this petition to get the fire commission to fire the chief engineer. Alderson wanted no interference from city hall but then was beset on another front. When the fire commission ordered him to produce a plan on integration and the white ranks learned of this, they raised $500,000 and formed a fact-finding committee to investigate whether integration was possible and petitioned the fire commission to hold any decision until Oct 14, 1954. Before the results of this committee were heard, the commissioners ordered Alderson to integrate, which he began to do. Four black firefighters were sent to other firehouses from the two segregated firehouses. Tensions rose; the fact-finding committee reported back to the commission that under no circumstances should integration occur. By then, the firehouses that were integrated[12] became hellhouses for the black firefighters. Nightly hazing had become warped and degrading. When six more blacks were sent to the Old #10 firehouse, the tension was palpable. By the end of 1955, Chief Alderson removed the men from the white firehouses (so-called ‘Hate Houses’),[13] for their safety, much to the chagrin of the fire commission, which then fired him for insubordination. Wearied by the year's events and vilified by the Eagle's[14] campaign to remove the segregationist, Alderson announced that he would retire at years end. The commission sheepishly let the dismissal drop, as it seemed they were being petty firing the retiring chief engineer. The media had been critical of Alderson and remained neutral over his conflict with the fire commission. Alderson retired at the end of the year. Deputy Chief Frank Rothermel became interim chief engineer until William L. Miller became the fire chief engineer on January 17, 1956 and began to integrate the LAFD. Miller, not wanting to be in the same place as the man he replaced, quietly went about the task. With some white firefighters backing integration and receiving punishment for it, the tide had turned against segregation and Miller went ahead and transferred black and white firefighters to Fire Station 7 at 2824 S. Main Street. Calling it an "experiment", Miller had chosen men he knew were un-opposed to integration for the assignment at Fire Station 7.

By September 1956, old #30 and #14 firehouses were integrated. All black firefighters formerly assigned at the segregated houses were transferred into 17 of the city's 91 fire stations. Hazings still occurred, but along the lines of the traditional firehouse fare all probies endured. The long crisis year of 1955-56 finally ended for the LAFD. Bradley Garret and Tolbert Young were the first blacks hired after integration. Both were terminated unfairly during their academy training, which path Jim Crow practices now took in the fire department. By 1959, barely 3% of the firefighters in the LAFD were African-American. During the 60 years following Alderson's departure, questions of whether he was a traditionalist protecting his department arose. Alderson believed in segregation, and he had convinced himself that his legal obligations under the city charter prohibited assignments based upon race, albeit that some of the city's laws now ran against the rulings adopted by the supreme court[15] and made law everywhere across America.

This fight to integrate the LAFD was re-vitalized the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP under newly-elected president Thomas Neusom and vice president Loren Miller. By the 1960s, blacks and whites began marching en masse to gain recognitio- culminating with the march on Washington and passage of the Voting Rights Act. The struggles of the Civil Rights era[16] had begun with the stands made by civil service workers such as those Old Stentorians who fought for fairness and diversity in the ranks of the LAFD. By recruiting and mentoring youth to apply for the title and later in the ranks of the paramedics, the 1970s saw a rise in the number of black officers.[17] While occasionally there was racial tension[18] in the firehouse, the LAFD began to find itself under fire from the very communities they served. In 1965, Watts exploded into riots and firefighters of every stripe came under fire while on duty. The Stentorians came to understand a different sensibility of Jim Crow, namely harassment in various forms that didn’t quite rise to the level of racial animosity, but as ret. f.f. Arnett Hartsfield recounted in 1973,[19] "I had a degree in law yet I went to work and cleaned toilets!" When the call came in 1969 from New York that a national black firefighter organization was being formed, the Stentorians stepped up.

In 1970, Captains David Floyd and John L.Ruffins Jr. of the FDNY Vulcan Society founded the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters,[20] an international fraternal order that The Stentorians became a part of. Black firefighters across the country formed chapters.

In 1980, the Stentorians acquire old Station #46 at 1409 W. Vernon Ave. as their office and training center.

By 1990, the Stentorians had divided into two chapters, The Los Angeles County Stentorians and the Los Angeles City Stentorians. Today, the Los Angeles City Stentorians membership consists of more than 400 African-American men and women fire fighters and paramedics[21][22] throughout Los Angeles. Both groups of Stentorians also belong to the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters, a national organization promoting equality for the fire service nationwide.

In 1991, the Executive Development Institute[23] was created at Florida A&M University. This program was created by the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters as an alternative to the National Fire Academy.[24] The previous year, the Los Angeles County Fire union, Local 1014 had accused the Stentorians of cheating on the entry-level exam for firefighters. As a result of the allegation, the fire chief threw out the exam, causing countless candidates to fail the new exam. The allegations were false, and the union and the Stentorians endured a rift in their otherwise cordial relationship. The EDI was created in response to this. Historically, Black firefighters had not been successful in attending the NFA for a variety of reasons. Later on, EDI was renamed in honor of Carl Holmes. Several members from the LAFD and the LACoFD graduated from the first class of this prestigious program. CarlHolmesEDI continues to exist today.

Many of the traditions that Stentorians started over sixty years ago continue today, including "Mentoring to Youth in the Community", "General Community Outreach", "Career Counseling", "Career Enhancement & Upward Mobility", and "Labor Relations." The members also serve as big brothers and big sisters for the Gwen Bolden Foundation. Through their involvement in the school system, the Foundation and the Stentorians have been able to offer community youth a viable alternative to the growing problems with gangs and drugs. The Stentorians have progressed and prospered over the years, becoming a well noted and respected organization in the community. Old Station 46 was renovated and became the home of the Stentorians, and renamed for Arnett Hartsfield Jr[25] of the City and Van Davis of the County of LA fire departments.