Ginger Adams Otis

What Will Your New York Encounter Be? Strolling amid avant-garde architecture on the High LineWatching the sun set and city lights flicker from the Empire State BuildingDiscovering the next Warhol or Basquiat at the Dumbo Arts CenterGoing underground after-hours with the beautiful people at Sullivan RoomShopping at a variety of markets - be it flea, farmers or the famed Chelsea MarketDining on dim sum (and then some) at Chinatown's Tai Pan Bakery Discover Twice the City in Half the Time Full-color pull-out map for easy navigationOur local author recommends the best restaurants, shops, theaters, galleries and moreHand-picked highlights, itineraries and web resources help you make the most of a short tripNew Yorkers share the love: meet a fashion designer, a CNN producer, head of PR for the New York Public Library and Emmy Award-winning musicians from Queens

New York Encounter

As police and fire departments still struggle with integration across the US, the powerful story of the black men who fought for a place in the FDNY

The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York's Bravest

Firefight

In 1919, when Wesley Williams became a New York City firefighter, he stepped into a world that was 100% white and predominantly Irish. As far as this city knew, black men in the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) tended horses. Nearly a century later, many things in the FDNY had changed—but not the scarcity of blacks. New York had about 300 black firefighters—roughly 3 percent of the 11,000 New York firefighters in a city of two million African Americans. That made the FDNY a true aberration compared to all the other uniformed departments, like the NYPD. Decades earlier, women and blacks had sued over its hiring practices and won. But the FDNY never took permanent steps to eradicate the inequities, which led to a courtroom show-down between New York City's billionaire Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and a determined group of black activist firefighters. It was not until 2014 that the city settled the $98 million lawsuit. At the center of this book are stories of courage—about firefighters risking their lives in the line of duty but also risking their livelihood by battling an unjust system. Among them: FDNY Captain Paul Washington, a second generation black firefighter, who spent his multi-decade career fighting to get minorities on the job. He faced an insular culture made up of relatives who never saw their own inclusion as favoritism. Based on author Ginger Adams Otis' years of on the ground reporting, Firefight is an exciting blend of the high-octane energy of firefighting and critical Civil Rights history.

Ginger Adams Otis

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