In 1950s Los Angeles, these men fought fires, saved lives and slept under the same roof with white colleagues who did not want them there. From the start, Arnett Hartsfield wrote down details of the confrontations, saved newspaper clippings and filled photo albums with sepia-tone images of proud men in uniforms. The two-day celebration also marks the 100th anniversary of African Americans in the fire service in Los Angeles. Retired firefighters, mostly in their 70s and 80s, will return to Central Avenue. Dubbed Old Stentorians, for the organization of black firefighters they created, the men will climb atop a fire rig and ride in a procession.
History usually abandons the specifics, smoothes over personal moments and individual faces.
But Hartsfield is the caretaker of this history, holding tight to each man's experience because the story is there in the fine print of their lives. Each of our men handled the situation in a different way. And I'm so proud of them. I'm the griot the teller of the story. L.A. County Fire Capt.