Hoosier History Live is an independently produced new media project about Indiana history, integrating podcasts, website www.HoosierHistoryLive.org, weekly enewsletter, and social media. Its original content comes initially from a live with call in weekly talk radio show hosted by author and historian Nelson Price. You can hear the show live Saturdays from noon to 1 pm ET at WICR 88.7 fm or stream the show live at the WICR HD1 app on your phone, or at our website.
February 17, 2024
Black firefighters history in Indy
Way back in 1876, when firefighting equipment was transported by horse-drawn wagons, the first Black firefighters were hired by the Indianapolis Fire Department. The four African Americans included a firefighter who, in 1911, died in the line of duty.
Details about the story of the trail-blazing firefighters will be described on this show as Hoosier History Live salutes Black History Month. Our guest will be Corey Floyd, an IFD battalion chief and president of the Indianapolis Black Firefighters Association, which is in the midst of a major project. A history museum about Black firefighters is being developed in a non-operational (shuttered) fire station on the north-eastside.
The museum in Old Station No. 31, 1201 E. 46th St., is expected to feature historic firefighting equipment, uniforms, helmets, plaques and videos. Battalion Chief Floyd, who grew up near Old Fire Station No. 31, says he hopes the museum will open in two or three months.
Black firefighters were needed early on in the department's history (IFD had been established in 1859) because many of their white colleagues did not want to venture into Black neighborhoods to put out fires, according to Battalion Chief Floyd. The first Black firefighters in the city were Thomas Smith, Robert Braxton, James Graves and Thomas Howard. In 1911, Thomas Smith (by then an IFD veteran known for his skills in handling horses) was killed when his vehicle was stuck on a cobblestone street by a streetcar. For several decades, IFD was segregated, with most African American firefighters serving on an all-Black crew at a station on Indiana Avenue.
Today, IFD is about 16.7 percent Black, according to Battalion Chief Floyd, who also is a recruitment officer. "Joining the department was one of the best things that ever happened to me", he told the Indianapolis Star last September for a story about the museum that's underway.
A milestone in the modern history of Black firefighters in the Hoosier capital occurred in 1987. Then-Mayor William Hudnut appointed Joseph Kimbrew (1929-2015) as the first Black fire chief in IFD history. An Indianapolis native, Kimbrew was a graduate of Attucks High School and an Army veteran who had joined the IFD in 1955. About one year after Kimbrew's death at age 86, Fire Station 1 at 1903 W. 10th Street was renamed in his honor.
The current IFD chief, Ernest Malone, is Black; he was appointed to the department's top post in 2014 by former Mayor Greg Ballard.
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