2 months ago
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When Ben Holman became a San Diego firefighter in 1951, he wasn’t looking to make history. He was just looking for a good, steady job with an opportunity to advance.
But the fire chief at the time saw Holman as the perfect hire to help racially integrate the fire department, which until that time assigned all its Black firefighters to a single station in Mountain View, a predominantly Black neighborhood. Every other station was manned exclusively by White firefighters.
Chief George Courser told Holman he was going to be his Jackie Robinson in the fire department. He would be the one to break the color barrier, just as Robinson had done in professional baseball in 1947.
He assigned Holman to Station 14 in North Park, where he became the first African American firefighter to bunk down in a firehouse and fight fires next to White colleagues. Soon after, Courser transferred other Black firefighters to stations around the city.
Holman’s long-acknowledged role in integrating the fire service was celebrated anew last month when he turned 100. The mayor and City Council proclaimed Dec. 26, his birthday, as Alwin Benjamin Holman Day. About 100 friends and family members later gathered at a church for his birthday party.
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