City's 1st black firefighter honored for his pioneering efforts

10/29/2007

By William Kaempffer , Register Staff

NEW HAVEN — George Sweeney was 24 years old when he made New Haven history as the first black firefighter to work in the department. Assigned to Central Station, which at the time was on Olive Street, he picked up his rubber goods, the turnout gear of the era, and a few days later reported to his station for his first day.

"When I went to work, my brother dropped me off. I had my helmet, my turnout coat, two pairs of boots plus a set of work clothes and my lunch," said Sweeney. "Every pane of window in that firehouse had a head in it watching me get out of the car and come to work.

"Not one of those firemen at that time came out and gave me a hand to bring my stuff in."

On Saturday, Sweeney, 75, received the Trailblazer Award at the annual convention of the Northeast Region of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters. The New Haven Firebird Society, a fraternal group of black firefighters that he once led, hosted the convention, which was held in Bridgeport.

The year was 1957, a decade after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers and six years before Alabama's Governor George Wallace famously stood in the doorway at University of Alabama to block the registration of two black students.

"The first day I got hired, Mayor (Richard C.) Lee called me into his office. Mayor Lee had told me, 'George, you're going to be the first (African American) to go into a firehouse and you have to remember you might hear some derogatory statements.'"

That didn't happen often, he recalled. Occasionally, a firefighter would make an angry remark that Sweeney had taken a job that should have gone to his son. A few others just didn't speak to him but most "tried to be nice."

More importantly, fire scenes were color-blind and firefighters put aside whatever opinions they had to get the job done and, over the next 40 years, however, there would be more good than bad.

"The job was good to me," said Sweeney last week. He retired in 1996 after almost 40 years on the fire service.

He made lifelong friends, both black and white. Some stood out in his memory more than others, most notably a white firefighter named Ray Carbone who helped him stay grounded during the tough times.

"At times, he knew I was getting mad. His famous saying was, 'George, don't pay it no mind. Don't pay it no mind,'" Sweeney said.

Technically, Sweeney was the second black firefighter on the department, but the first to be assigned to a firehouse. Jim Curry was hired in 1953 and was assigned as aide and driver for the fire chief.

Ironically, Sweeney had never given much thought to a career in the fire service. For a time, he had worked at Pratt Whitney as a tool grinder and later put in an application to be on the New Haven police force. He got knocked from the hiring list because he didn't meet the height requirement. At 5 foot 9, he was told he was too short.

There were some high school classmates of his who also got disqualified from the police list and one approached Sweeney about switching to the fire department list.

Integration on the job was a slow process.

A decade after his hire, there was only a handful of black firefighters and no Hispanics on the force of more than 400. In 1973, Sweeney, then the president of the Firebirds, was part of a landmark lawsuit that changed the complexion of the department. In 1973 and 1974, a federal judge issued rulings ordering the fire department to recruit, hire and promote minority fireman, and at one point, there was a one-for-one edict, meaning for every white firefighter hired, the department had to hire one minority group member.

New Haven Fire Lt. Gary Tinney, the current president of the Firebirds and a member of the department since 1995, overlapped Sweeney's career by about two years, but knew him prior through a mutual friend.

Minorities on the job today, he said, owe a debt of gratitude to Sweeney for paving the way and fighting for what was right, even though he didn't financially benefit from the court case, he said.

"He could have chosen to take a monetary settlement but he didn't," said Tinney. "He wanted to go for the one-for-one and help out other people."