Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
PENSACOLA DIVISION
Plaintiffs,
v.
Affidavit of
Before me, the undersigned authority, personally appeared ~ by me first duly sworn deposes and states on oath as follows:
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J. telling
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to several people - "look at those little nig91ets playing." He thought that he was really
being funny.
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It appeared to me that African Americans were essentially kept out of the loop
about opportunities for training, advancement, and mentoring. At the same time, white
firefighters were given advance information about tests which enabled them to get
higher scores for promotions. In one instance, about three years ago, a group of white
firefighters were told in advance that certain questions would be on the test even
though the posted syllabus did not cover these questions, so others not given that
advance information were not prepared to answer those questions.
I have complained to Suzanne Humphrey at the civil service board several times
personally about the promotion tests being compromised in this manner and she would
tell me that there was nothing that she could do about it. She would become scared
and agitated. She appeared to have no authority or power over the tests.
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Chief(
and Chief
and the~ toOl<. ~utelY
no_
when Chief "
.Istood outside
my office and pretended to cry like a baby. He said "Oh they cheated, ... wahhh too
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f have observed that Blacks have often been assigned to menial tasks in a
repetitive fashion while Whites have been allowed to sit back in their chairs.
r am also concerned about the fairness of the grading Of the practical hands on
part of the promotion tests as this was done by the Chiefs and was very subjective.
The atmosphere of racism still exists at the Pensacola firefighters. The African
are made to feel unwelcome and unprotecf;ed. The white firefighters keep
helpfUl information to themselves and exclude African Americans and others who do not
agree with their attitudes, such as:
Americans
3) Information apout pracUoaJ portions of the test that counted toward the test
grade even though the sUbject matter was not previously CJisclosedfor all to
prepare for the test.
This has lead to favoring whites in promotions and disfavoring African Americans
and other white firefighters wtlo are sympathetic to African Americans. Once a alaCk
firefighter or a white person who openly objects to the racism, is heJd back unfairly In
promotions. then the person held back loses seniority, money. and the opportunity to
apply for other positions.
- The present attitude about Afiican Americans can be summed up by an older
retired firefighter recently coming to the fire station and stating to the white firefighter understand that you have to eat off the same table with the nfggers now'? We did not
have to do that" - and the whIte firefighter simply saying "yeah, we have to do-that."
*.
To this day. I see that white firefighters are also given pref9r'entlal treatment
when they are promoted without an opening. Yet. African Americans haVe been
prevented from being promoted even though openings exist African American
firefighters are still kept out of the loop of information. They are still denied training and
white firefighters are still given unfair advatlG6 information abOUt tQst 9xam qo~on:s
and teshmswers. ThIs haS been brought to the city's attention by going to the Fire
Chiefs and to the Civil Service Board and no one has takGn any eorreetive action's.
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My Commission
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