By Bryan Dean
The Oklahoman
Copyright 2007 The Oklahoman, All Rights Reserved
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Carl Holmes had more than a career path in mind when he joined the Oklahoma City Fire Department.
There were no black firefighters in Oklahoma. Or Texas. Or anywhere in the region.
Holmes was one of 12 black firefighters hired by the department in 1951 - three years before the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were inherently unequal, four years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus and seven years before the Oklahoma City NAACP Youth Council staged its first sit-in.
Monument to honor men
The city’s first 12 black firefighters were honored Wednesday at the Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum. Fire Chief Keith Bryant said a monument to the men is planned when the city builds its new Bricktown Fire Station.
Four of the men attended Wednesday’s ceremony, and three others were represented by family members.
Holmes said the day reminded him of the sacrifices the men made. Most stayed on with the department for many years. Holmes retired as an assistant chief.
“They came in for the long haul and to make change,” Holmes said. “They made an outstanding contribution to the fire service and the Oklahoma City Fire Department at a time when the Oklahoma City Fire Department really wasn’t wanting it to happen. When I left the job 30 years later, we had close to 100 black firefighters across the system, of all ranks.”
It wasn’t always easy
Melvin A. Franklin said he was attending Langston University when he had a chance to join the fire department. It wasn’t always easy. Although some firefighters were supportive, racism was prevalent, Franklin said.
“There was some chaos,” Franklin said. “With that in mind, we endured and did fine.”
Franklin and Holmes said the city and its fire leadership deserve credit for hiring blacks before other area cities. At first, the black firefighters were segregated from their white counterparts.
By 1959, black firefighters were serving in six integrated fire stations.
“Some of the more progressive chief officers were fed up with it,” Holmes said. “They decided to push forward. It made the city really wake up to a lot of things.”
Ward 7 Councilman Willa Johnson said it’s hard to overstate how much the black firefighters meant to the growing civil rights movement. Johnson, the city’s only black council member, said Oklahoma City set the bar for the region by hiring black firefighters.
“These guys opened the door for every minority that has come into any service in this city, and we are eternally grateful to them for that,” Johnson said.
Fire Cpl. Harold Leverett, Franklin’s nephew, said he grew up hearing stories from his uncle and several of the other men honored Wednesday.
Leverett called the men giants.