Bringing the Forgotten History of Black Firefighting to Life
Volunteer firefighters represented a potent swirl of masculinity, self-sacrifice, and republican virtue. But Philadelphia had no Black companies.
Source: smithsonianmag.com
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Volunteer firefighters represented a potent swirl of masculinity, self-sacrifice, and republican virtue. But Philadelphia had no Black companies.
Two objects, a valued heirloom and a forgotten metal pin, tell very different stories of African American communities and their connections to firefighting in the 1800s, one in the North and the other in the South.