This week in 2015 members of the LARFPA Board of Directors attended a ceremony at the Los Angeles African American Firefighters Museum honoring Arnett Hartsfield.
Arnett Hartsfield was an army veteran and firefighter who helped integrate the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD). After several years in the army, Hartsfield joined the LAFD and utilized his GI Bill benefits to go back to school, attending both the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. Despite prestigious college degrees, Hartsfield was denied promotions in the LAFD and was forced to work in segregated firehouses before he helped integrate them in 1956. Before integration, African American firefighters could only be promoted within the two African American fire companies in Los Angeles; promotional opportunities were limited to only when someone left a position.
Inspired by the landmark school desegregation decision of Brown vs. the Board of Education, Hartsfield and 30 other African American firefighters formed the Stentorians, protested against segregation in the fire department and ultimately won that fight. After 20 years as a firefighter, Hartsfield retired in 1961 to become an attorney and a professor of Black Studies. During his retirement, Hartsfield served as the African American Firefighter Museum’s historian. At age 92, he was recognized for his work when he was named Honorary Fire Chief by the LAFD. Hartsfield passed away in November 2014 at the age of 96.
Attending the event, left to right, are Jimmy Chastain, LARFPA President from 2004-2006, Will O. Garland, LARFPA President from 2003-2004, Jimmy Hill, LARFPA Treasurer from 2014-2019, Paul Enox, LARFPA President from 2013-2015, and Jim Mateer, LARFPA President from 2021-2023.