By: Natiece Ford
“After everyone else went home, I went back to check on the families to see if I could help them get some sense of normalcy.” That is the kind of man Freddie Jackson is and what has allowed him to excel within the Houston Fire Department. For fifty years, Jackson has been involved in helping the community. A Houston native, he joined the Houston Fire Department in November 1973 and was a member of Local #341 from 1974 to 1993. When asked if he always dreamed of becoming a firefighter, his answer point- ed to the discrimination that Black individuals face, both then and now. “I could never have dreamed of becoming a firefighter when I was a kid because they didn’t hire their first Black firefighter until 1955.” Jackson was born in 1951. “There were only a few places that Blacks could have worked, and where I lived in the 5th Ward, you would have never seen a Black person on a fire truck. Now they are about to put my name on one of the fire trucks in Acres Home—that is mind-boggling to me.”
Before becoming a fire- fighter, Jackson worked at what was then Foley’s in the delivery department, which is today‘s Macy’s, and he also worked as a longshore- man. Many of the Black firefighters at the time worked at Foley’s part- time. Initially, Jackson was hesitant; when told to apply, his initial response was, “I’m not running up into any burning houses.” However, he was finally convinced, and he filled out the application and was selected.
When asked if the fire department was diverse by the time he was selected in 1973, Jackson’s response was “no.” “I was hired on a consent decree, where 10 per- cent of minorities had to be hired. They were giving us a chance because they had to.” Out of a class of thirty, two of the men were Black, and the other hiree was Hispanic. Jackson was sure to emphasize that even if a person did not graduate from the academy, the fire department did not have to hire someone to replace the original cadet; instead, the void would remain unfilled, and the minority quota would still be satisfied. When Jackson graduated, he was the only Black person from his class.
When asked what the biggest challenge he faced as a firefighter was, Jackson pointed to discrimination against minorities in line for promotions. Because of this, Jackson, along with other Black firefighters, helped create the Houston Black Firefighters Association, a caucus within the firefighters’ union. After being unable to grow within the union, the group decided to join the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters. With the help of the IABPFF, they were able to change the hiring practices of the Houston Fire Department. Jackson pointed out that there are 605 Black firefighters in the Houston Fire Department, which he emphasized is out of 5,000 total firefighters. In Chicago, there are 350 Black firefighters out of 11,000. The first Black firefighter was not hired in Dallas until 1970.
