In honor of Black History Month, we are looking back to September 1961. At that time, the Greensboro Fire Department hired the first class of Black firefighters.
Twenty-eight joined the department and five are still alive today.
Ernest McCoy was one of them and he shared his story with us. He said he experienced isolation as the station was segregated. "This took place and many many of us looked at what would it be like to be a fireman. I never saw black firemen as a matter of coming together, becoming a group becoming more caring for each other. Looking at the process feeling somewhat isolated because it was a black fire station," McCoy explained.