Fire-engine company in Philadelphia, United States
Philadelphia's monument to Engine Company No. 11, "One of 22 fire companies established under the Philadelphia Fire Department in 1871. In 1919, it became a segregated African American unit whose members distinguished themselves through professional service. Desegregated in 1952." At Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, South St. and S. Alder St.
Engine Company No. 11 was a fire-engine company in Philadelphia. Established in 1871, it was Philadelphia's only all-black segregated company from 1919, and was desegregated in 1952.[1] In 1871, Philadelphia established its professional fire department, creating 22 fire companies, replacing about 90 volunteer companies. In 1886 Issac Jacobs was hired as the first African-American firefighter and was assigned to Engine Company No. 11. Jacobs was restricted to caring for the horses and performing other menial duties, not allowed to fight fires as his title suggested. Following Jacob's resignation from the position in 1891, Stephen Presco, another African American male, was hired. Unlike Jacobs, Presco was allowed to take part in firefighting activities like his white counterparts, and was killed in the line of duty.[2]
The many men who worked there were referred to as "leather lungs" and were often given the hardest and most dangerous tasks. Due to overstaffing in Engine Company No. 11 as well as surrounding companies in 1952 it was desegregated and prompted the growth of six new mixed fire departments in the area.[3]
In 1976 Engine Company No. 11 was relocated to 601-09 South Street, and the former building now houses Willie G. Williams Community Center. The Community Center’s OpportUNITY program works to help ex-convicts re-enter society through vocational training programs and employment in construction. [4]
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact on the settlement patterns of various groups. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American civil rights movement, both before and after the US Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, particularly desegregation of the school systems and the military. Racial integration of society was a closely related goal.
Kinloch is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri. The population was 263 as of the 2020 census.
Tastykake is a line of snack foods manufactured by the Tasty Baking Company, headquartered at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1914 by Philip J. Baur and Herbert T. Morris and originally selling its product only in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the company now distributes its products in several states on the East Coast, south to Florida, and has been gradually expanding across the United States.
The New York City Fire Museum is a museum dedicated to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is housed in the former quarters of the FDNY's Engine Company No. 30, a renovated 1904 fire house at 278 Spring Street between Varick and Hudson Streets.
The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) is the school district that includes all school district-operated public schools in Philadelphia. Established in 1818, it is largest school district in Pennsylvania and the eighth-largest school district in the nation, serving over 197,000 students as of 2022.
Bella Vista, Italian for "beautiful sight", is a neighborhood in the South Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.
Crispus Attucks High School is a public high school of Indianapolis Public Schools in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. Its namesake, Crispus Attucks, was an African American patriot killed during the Boston Massacre. The school was built northwest of downtown Indianapolis near Indiana Avenue and opened on September 12, 1927, when it was the only public high school in the city designated specifically for African Americans.
Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) is a school district that runs the public school system of Hillsborough County in west central Florida and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, United States. It is frequently referred to as the School District of Hillsborough County (SDHC).
Facilities and services such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, and transportation have been systematically separated in the United States based on racial categorizations. Segregation was the legally or socially enforced separation of African Americans from whites, as well as the separation of other ethnic minorities from majority and mainstream communities. While mainly referring to the physical separation and provision of separate facilities, it can also refer to other manifestations such as prohibitions against interracial marriage, and the separation of roles within an institution. The U.S. Armed Forces were formally segregated until 1948, as black units were separated from white units but were still typically led by white officers.
The Philadelphia Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS) to the city of Philadelphia. The PFD's official mission is to protect public safety by quick and professional response to emergencies and through the promotion of sound emergency prevention measures. This mandate encompasses all traditional firefighting functions, including fire suppression, with 58 Engine companies and 29 Ladder companies as well as specialty and support units deployed throughout the city; specialized firefighting units for Philadelphia International Airport and the Port of Philadelphia; investigations conducted by the Fire Marshal's Office to determine the origins of fires and to develop preventive strategies; prevention programs to educate the public in order to increase overall fire safety; and support services such as: research and planning, management of the Fire Communications Center within the City's 911 system, and operation of the Fire Academy.
Union Fire Company, sometimes called Franklin's Bucket Brigade, was a volunteer fire department formed in Philadelphia in 1736 with the assistance of Benjamin Franklin. It was the first firefighting organization in Philadelphia, although it was followed within the year by establishment of the Fellowship Fire Company. The fire company was formed on 7 December 1736 after a series of publications in the Pennsylvania Gazette by Franklin and others pointing out the need for more effective handling of fires in Philadelphia and remained active until approximately 1820. Although modeled after the Mutual Fire Societies of Franklin's native Boston, the Union Fire Company protected all members of the community rather than only the members of the company.
The District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, established July 1, 1804, provides fire protection and emergency medical service for the District of Columbia, in the United States. An organ of the devolved district government, Fire & EMS is responsible for providing fire suppression, ambulance service and hazardous materials containment for the federal district.
Engine House No. 7 is one of the original Fire Station Houses established by the District of Columbia Fire Department in the late 19th century. Built in 1884, Engine House No. 7 was home to Engine Co. No. 7 before the segregation of the Department in 1940 when it then housed the historic first all-black fire squad, Engine Co. No. 4. After Engine Co. No. 4 moved to a new location in 1976, Engine House No. 7 was sold to private owners and turned into a major local art studio.
The Philadelphia Negro is a sociological and epidemiological study of African Americans in Philadelphia that was written by W. E. B. Du Bois, commissioned by the University of Pennsylvania and published in 1899 with the intent of identifying social problems present in the African American community.
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a desegregated force, made up of troops of all races working and fighting alongside each other. In 1776 and 1777, a dozen African American Marines served in the American Revolutionary War, but from 1798 to 1942, the USMC followed a racially discriminatory policy of denying African Americans the opportunity to serve as Marines. For more than 140 years, the Marines recruited primarily European Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans, along with a few Asian Americans.
The Philadelphia Pythians was one of the earliest Negro league baseball clubs, founded in 1865. African-American leaders Jacob C. White Jr. and Octavius V. Catto established the team. The Pythians were composed of primarily business and middle class professionals from the surrounding areas of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. Just two years after the Civil War ended, in 1867, the Pennsylvania State Convention of Baseball, located in Harrisburg, denied the "Pythian Base Ball Club" out of Philadelphia. The team dissolved after Catto's death in 1871 and a new team formed under the Pythian name in the National Colored Base Ball League in 1887. The new team's first season went 4–1. Due to financial troubles it folded after only one season.
In the United States, school integration is the process of ending race-based segregation within American public and private schools. Racial segregation in schools existed throughout most of American history and remains an issue in contemporary education. During the Civil Rights Movement school integration became a priority, but since then de facto segregation has again become prevalent.
The Vulcan Society, founded in 1940, is a fraternal organization of black firefighters in New York City.
The history of African Americans in Austin dates back to 1839, when the first African American, Mahala Murchison, arrived. By the 1860s, several communities were established by freedmen that later became incorporated into the city proper. The relative share of Austin's African-American population has steadily declined since its peak in the late 20th century.
The Valiants of Philadelphia is a fraternal society of Black and Latino firefighters in Pennsylvania, with the mission of encouraging urban youth to pursue public safety careers and promoting public safety and fire prevention through education.
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