Description
Book SynopsisFor 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.
Trade Review“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“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“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
