New Haven Register
June 25, 2009
NEW HAVEN — A group of black and Hispanic firefighters and community leaders, who say they face common challenges but sometimes follow divergent paths, stood together in a show of unity Wednesday at a symbolic location in a melting-pot neighborhood.The announcement was what they called a newfound common ground between the two racial groups and an era of better collaboration, forged during a recent series of meetings mediated by the NAACP aimed at “healing,” said James Rawlings, president of New Haven’s NAACP branch.“We face a lot of things together as minorities, and for us, being divided and separate is not a good thing,” said firefighter Terry Rountree, vice president of the New Haven Firebird Society, a fraternal organization of black firefighters. “And from this day forth, hopefully, we can work together and just serve the city better in certain issues that we both deal with as minorities on the Fire Department.”The groups gathered in advance of a Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, a New Haven case that potentially could change the landscape of hiring and promotional practices in the public sector when it comes to race.Regardless of the outcome, Alderman Jorge Perez, a prominent leader in the Hispanic community, said, “We don’t want to let any one issue separate us.“We should not let anything, including the Ricci case, come between the two communities. We have much in common.”A small crowd turned out despite the rain in Fair Haven, a community with a large Hispanic population, in front of a memorial for black soldiers from the 29th Infantry Regiment who fought for the Union in the Civil War.Rawlings called it a “coming together as one group, relative to the kinds of civil rights issues that we have fought collaboratively over the many, many, many years.”At least part of the friction appears to have been rooted in the different positions two fraternal organizations representing blacks and Hispanics took in the Ricci case, which centers on two civil service exams that were thrown out in 2004 because not enough blacks scored high enough to be promoted. The city lobbied the Civil Service Commission to discard the results because they appeared to violate federal law barring disparate impact on any racial group.From the beginning, the Firebirds adamantly and vocally supported the city’s position.The New Haven Hispanic Firefighters Association, meanwhile, has been careful to remain neutral, although the International Association of Hispanic Firefighters, of which the NHHFA is a chapter, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court supporting the city.New Haven Firefighter Rene Cordova explained that he founded the NHHFA as a service organization, not a political one, and while he attended Wednesday’s event, he steered clear of the disputed tests. He did agree with the call for unity, and said it should transcend race to include all firefighters on the department.The handful of meetings between the two groups, along with the NAACP and Ronald Morales of the IAHFF, occurred over the last few months.It bothered Lt. Gary Tinney, a Firebird, that the media focused on the African-American position in the Ricci case, when the IAHFF filed a Supreme Court brief taking the same stance.Employment lawsuits the Firebirds filed and won in New Haven have benefited all minorities, not just African Americans, he said.“We had to find a way to communicate better,” Tinney said. “We were being put against each other and it shouldn’t have been the case, because the issues that affect them are the same issues that affect us.”The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule within days in the case brought by one Hispanic and 19 white firefighters who claim the city violated their civil rights by throwing out the tests.Morales said Wednesday that the show of unity was important, since blacks and Hispanics face shared challenges in a profession that he says is still dominated by a “good old boy” network that stifles opportunity for all minorities.
Full Story: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/06/25/news/new_haven/a1_--_unity.txt
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