African American Firefighter History
On May 19, 1876, Indianapolis Fire Chief
W. O. Sherwood appointed the first four
African Americans to the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Photo: Indianapolis Fire Department
The oldest documents identifying government sanctioned African American firefighters were found in New Orleans, Louisiana. A devastating fire in July 1817 led the governing body to organize its people to avoid another conflagration. All draymen and their equipment as well as individual free men of color and slaves were recruited.
The first woman firefighter was an African American. Molly Williams worked along side the men of the Oceanus Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 of New York City in 1818.
Patrick H. Raymond was appointed on January 5, 1871 as the first African American Fire Chief in the United States (Cambridge, MA).
The International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters was organized in Hartford, CT in 1970.
Robert O. Lowery was=2 0the first African American Fire Commissioner of a major U.S. city. He was the Fire Department of New York’s 21st Fire Commissioner, serving from January 1, 1966 until September 29, 1973.
Toni McIntosh of the Pittsburgh (PA) Bureau of Fire was the first African-American woman to become a career firefighter in June of 1976.
The first African American United States Fire Administrator, Carrye B. Brown, was appointed in 1994.
The first African American woman appointed as Fire Chief for a career fire department was Chief Rosemary Cloud with the East Point (GA) Fire Department in 2002.
For more African American Firefighter history, visit the
African American Fire Fighting Museum's Web site.
