Roughly 500 firefighters from around the world landed in Cincinnati this week for the 55th biannual convention of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters, turning the Queen City into a hub for strategy sessions, workshops and long-overdue recognition of the men and women who broke barriers in the fire service. The gathering, which runs through Saturday, brought together servicemen and women from across the globe for a full slate of registration, international business sessions and workshops.
The event was organized nationally by the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters, but on the ground in Cincinnati, the Cincinnati African American Firefighters Association served as the host chapter responsible for programming outside the formal conference, according to WCPO 9 News. CAFA president C.J. Battle, who is also a Cincinnati firefighter, said the convention gives members a chance to hash out strategic plans for advancing African Americans in the fire service and to address membership issues directly.
A Documentary Honors CAFA's Elders
CAFA hosted a ticketed public event Thursday evening that included the premiere of a documentary highlighting the chapter's own history, built from video documentation of stories told by its elders. The chapter plans to present that same video documentation to the national organization and post it across CAFA's social media platforms, per the outlet's reporting. The Thursday program also featured remarks from motivational speaker Dr. Umar Johnson, whose presence, the report notes, drew attention to the convention even though Battle acknowledged Johnson is a controversial figure.
Battle said CAFA is proud to give African Americans a platform for that kind of dialogue regardless of the controversy surrounding any single speaker. The week's programming also included a besties brunch for women in the fire service, a gathering CAFA leadership prioritized given how limited Black women remain within the profession nationally.
A Local Chapter Rooted in Decades of Advocacy
The Cincinnati African American Firefighters Association was established in 1980 to promote equitable employment practices, professional advancement and community outreach within the local fire service, according to the Cincinnati African American Firefighters Association. Its work continues a much longer national movement: the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters was organized in Hartford, Connecticut in 1970, after a 1969 national conference in New York City where Black firefighters convened to confront recruitment barriers, workplace discrimination and community relations, per the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters. Today the international group represents more than 8,000 fire service members across over 180 local chapters in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.
That advocacy has deep roots in Cincinnati specifically. The city established the nation's first fully paid, professional municipal fire department on April 1, 1853, earning it the motto “First in the Nation,” according to the City of Cincinnati. Yet more than a century passed before Herbert S. Bane became the department's first African American firefighter in 1955, and it took until 1984 for Paula Duncan, Vickie Goodson and Pateeser Jackson to become the first women hired as Cincinnati firefighters.
Legal Battles Shaped Today's Workforce
Progress didn't come without a fight in the courts. A federal consent decree entered in 1974 under Youngblood v. Dalzell established court-supervised civil service practices and minority hiring goals for the Cincinnati Fire Division after litigation alleged racial discrimination in hiring and promotions, according to court records cited by Justia Law. That legal history helps explain why Cincinnati's fire department looks noticeably different from the national picture today.
Cincinnati's fire department includes approximately 900 firefighters and has about 24% to 25% African American firefighters, according to Battle, speaking with WCPO. That's roughly triple the national rate: Black or African American workers account for approximately 8.0% to 8.2% of all employed career firefighters nationwide, according to 2023-2024 Current Population Survey data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Battle also said Cincinnati's six assistant chief positions have nearly equal racial representation, and he described the department as aiming to reflect the demographics of the city it serves. Cincinnati's own population is 36.5% Black, per the U.S. Census Bureau, meaning a gap remains even with the department's above-average numbers.
Gender Gaps Persist Alongside Racial Progress
Women remain even more scarce in fire stations nationwide. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2024 indicates that women comprise under 5% of active career firefighters across the country, a disparity CAFA's besties brunch was designed to address head-on for the women who do wear the uniform. The International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters continues working to address discrimination and unfair treatment of Black firefighters nationally, decades after that first 1969 conference in New York.
For Battle, the stakes are personal as well as professional. He told WCPO that firefighting changed his life and his children's lives, describing a work schedule of two days a week, nine days a month, with five days off every three weeks — a structure he credits as part of what makes firefighting a career with real benefits. Black firefighters faced discrimination in hiring, promotions and treatment on the job for decades, and organizers say this week's convention is one more step in an advocacy effort that has now stretched across 56 years.
