LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This week, the Louisville Fire Department is celebrating 100 years since the department's first African-American firefighters graduated from the training academy.
In 1923, the city of Louisville announced it would hire 10 African-Americans to work in the fire department for the first time. Their first firehouse was Engine 8 on South 13th Street. The brick building still stands there today.
Finalists went through physical and mental testing in September and then reported to drill school for over two months.
Then on Dec. 14, ten African American firefighters graduated as part of the drill school's 16th class and were assigned to replace all-white members of Engine Number 8, making Engine 8 the department's first African-American fire company.
"It definitely set the groundwork for my generation and the generation before me," Assistant Louisville Fire Chief Randolph Croney said. "If that hadn't happened, we don't know what we would have been at with the generation."
Engine Number 8 became fully integrated 22 years later, in 1955, with both black and white firefighters working together for the city ever since.
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