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September 25, 1969 The Honorable Ivan Allen, Jr., Mayor City of Atlanta City Hall Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Dear Mayor Allen: This letter is in response to the letter of August 15, 1969 addressed to you by Chief P. o. Williams of the Atlanta Fire Department. You will recall that at the meeting which prompted that letter, many of the Atlanta firemen expressed to you their grievances over dis criminatory practices in the AtJanta Fire Department. We are certain that y ou a r e unaware of the extent of the racial discrimination pr act ic ed i n t h e Atlanta Fir e Depar t ment . The pur pose of this lette r is , first, t o summari ze cer tain major grievances in the light of Chi ef Williams ' letter, and secondly, t o r equest that you a ttend t h e meeting of the Board of Fire Mast e r s on Monday, Sept ember 29t h , when the s e matters will be c onsidered. This letter will emphasize three spec i fic courses of action in which the black firemen of Atlanta are intere s ted. Although this l i st is not exhaustive, it is believed that action in the s e t hree areas will demonstrate good faith on t h e part of the City and on the part of the senior officials in the Fire Department, and will also make it possible to work effectively toward resolution of the other grievances of the black firemen. First, on promotional practices. In his letter of August 15, 1969, Chief Williams stated that the promotional system of the Atlanta Fire Department is set by law. This is true. The Code of Ordinance s of the City of Atlanta requires that all hiring and promotional practices by City Departments shall be on a non- dis criminatory basis. It is not true, however, that this law is always followed in practic e . As Thomas Jefferson observed: "The execution of the laws is more important than the making of them." In his letter, Chief Williams states that promotional examinations for Fire Lieutenants are held every two years. In the past, such examinations have been held at varying intervals of time, from six months to as much as two years. The most recent such examination was last March. As Chief Williams states, there are no black firemen high enough on the promotional list which resulted from that examination to anticipate any promotions of black firemen to Lieutenants within the foreseeable future. For the reasons summarized below, it is the position of the black firemen that the examination given in March, 1969, was unfairly administered, and that there were both over and covert methods of favoring white firemen who took this exam. �• For example, at ·the time prior to the test in March, many white firemen were seen studying copies of an examination folder, and discussing among themselves questions that would be on the exam. Whether these were actual copies of the exam to be given, copies of examination booklets from which the questions would be taken, or copies of previous examinations, it is not known because none of them were made available to any black firemen. The only textbooks available to the black firemen for study were t h e one set of regulations and fire fighting procedures av ailable at each station, to which the black firemen had only l imited access. Mor eov er, the writt en examination is not t h e only grade upon which pr omoti on is based. In addition to the written examination score , f i r emen are gr aded at the training tower and the scor e given t hem there c an only help their grade , n ot det r act f r om it. Scores given at the train i ng t ower a re ent irely s ub j ective and t h e onl y gr ader s a:re white offi cers. The white firemen wh o are favored by the offi c ers rec eive h igher scores. Even if a black fir eman were t o s cor e i n the t op twenty of all the Atlanta f iremen on the written and training t owe r tests, there is an oral interview to determine the order in which t he t op twenty will b e promoted. It would be an easy matter, under this system, t o place the black f iremen at the bottom of the list, and before that point was reached in promot ions , to call f or another Lieutenant' s examin ation, which would "re shuffle t he deck ." No othe r r eas on f or breaking down the promotion list into groups of t wenty suggests itself. It must als o be remember ed that white fi r emen r eceive encouragement and special inst ruction from t he whi te of fice rs who want t o see them succeed. There is no such encouragement to bl ack firemen even t o t ake the examination, much less is there any special inst r uc t ion or advice on taking the examination given to black firemen . The numerous instanc es of discrimination in the Department make it clea r t o the black firemen that the leadership of the Department is committ ed to a policy of making certain the black firemen are not t o be judged on an equal basis with white firemen. On t he basis of the f oregoing analysis it is diffi cult for us not to believe two things. First, the examination for promotions given in March, 1969, for fire lieutenant was not fairly administered as between black firemen and white firemen. Black firemen were expressly discriminated against in that copies of the examinat ion were not made available to them, and in that they were graded down at the training tower. Black firemen were more subtly discriminated against in that they did not receive the encouragement to take the examination and the assurances that the examination would be fairly administered. Given these disadvantages, which were apparent to all black firemen, the motivation of the black firemen who took the examination was understandably low. Again, we wish to point out that promotions have been made within the Fire Department in the last few years on an emergency basis, promoting persons who did not have the required length of time in grade. The - 2 - �present situation is a crisis of confidence by black firemen in the administration of the Fire Department, and is an emergency which would justify the immediate appointment of several black firemen to officer status. In addition, for the benefit of all the black firemen who desire to see fair, non-discriminatory administration of the promotion process, no promotions to Lieutenant should be made on the basis of the March, 1969 examination, and promotions already made on the basis of that examination should be rescinded. A new examination should be held, administered under the supervision of an outside agency to guarantee its fair, non-discriminatory administration. All black firemen should be given the same access to study materials as white firemen. Only af ter such a depar tmentwide examination is given, should any furthe r pr omotions be made in the Fire Department . Second, we believe the rules of the Department are, as a matter of policy, being unf airly administered to discourage blacks from r emaining in the Fi r e Department. There are numerous ex amples , known to every black fi r eman, of unf ai r administ r at ion of the r ules of the Department. For exampl e, black fi r emen will be r epor ted and di s ciplined f or b eing a few minut es late r epor t i ng f or duty. White firemen who are late f or a l onger p eriod of time are not r eport ed and di s ciplined. In order t o put an end to this petty abuse of rank, there must be created in the Fire Department a grievance pr ocedur e whereby such specific discriminatory prac tic e s can be called t o the at t ention of higher of ficials , and dealt with i n some spec i f ic fas hi on . Ther e is no such gr ievance procedure which has the c onfidence of the black firemen at pr esent . In his letter of August 15, 1969, Chief Willi ams s aid t here a r e, in fact, thr ee methods by which to air grievances . There a r e (1) c ompl eting a spec i al request, ( 2 ) going through company offi c ers and battali on chiefs , and ( 3) using t he suggestion f or m available in all s tat i ons . The problem is, t h at af ter using t h ese methods, nothing is done. Th ere mus t be a nonpar tisan committee, pref erably with both outside and black offi c er pa rt i ci pat i on, whi ch would publicly hear all complaints, and whi ch will f ollow a consistent patt er of punishing and suspending those officer s who practic e p etty discrimination . Without such a grievanc e proc edure , the black firemen feel that there is no hope of ending the pett y discrimination which presently pervades the Department. In addition to the unfair administration of the present rules, we feel that discrimination is being built into the proposed new rules promulgated at the last meeting of the Board of Fire Masters. In his letter of August 15, 1969, Chief Williams stated that "we are in the process of rewriting the rules and regulations of the Atlanta Fire Department to eliminate any inequities in the old book, to eliminate any possibility of discrimination or the possibility of any officer over-reacting with authority." Section 21, Paragraph 1 of the proposed new rules, relating to reemployment, provides that any employee who resigns or is dismissed from this Department may have his name plac ed on the re-employed list for reemployment within three (3) years from the termination of his services and that any member who is so re-employed may be credited with all former - 3 - �r service in the class in which he is re-employed. The present period for which this privilege of credit for former service is allowed is six (6) months. The effect of the adoption of any such rule would be to place all of the white firemen who left as a result of the strike less than three years ago, and in whose place many black firemen were employed, ahead of the black firemen in seniority. To the minds of the black firemen, such an unjust result, achieved with a mere "flick of the pen," is an important and significant manifestation of the bad faith of the present administration of the Fire Department with respect to black employees. You, as Mayor of this City, are urged to use your influence to prevent any such change in the regulations of the Fire Department whi ch would place all black firemen at the bottom of the list in terms of seniority. Within the confines of the above problems, there are many specific grievances and complaints of Atlanta black firemen. The purpose of the black firemen of Atlanta is to serve their City well and to protect its citizens from the dangers of fire and other hazards for which the Fi r e Department was organized. However, the black firemen of Atlanta are not able to serve their City eff ectively in the present atmosphe r of disc r i mination and unjust treatment that pervades the At l ant a Fire Dep ar t ment. Your earne s t att ention t o the above matte r s is urged. Your s ve ry truly, William Hamer, f or BRarHERS COMBINED SOCIAL CLUB cc: Members of Board of Fire Masters Chief P. o. Williams 4 �