David Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469633626
- eISBN:
- 9781469633633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469633626.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of ...
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This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of Black New Yorkers during the late 1930s and early 1940s. While relatively small, this influx of Black firefighters sparked racial backlash from the department’s overwhelming white majority, which attempted to formally institutionalize racism and racial segregation within the department. To combat this, New York’s Black firefighters formed the nation’s first Black firefighters’ organization, The Vulcan Society, in the early 1940s. The group emerged out of, and was a part of, the Black working-class oriented Black united front that developed in New York during the 1930s and early 1940s. Like similar Black labor organizations of the time, the Vulcan Society joined workplace and community-based struggles, and successfully mobilized to prevent the formal segregation of the FDNY.Less
This chapter examines how Black working-class activism and the political ascendancy of Fiorello La Guardia created a small window of opportunity to join the FDNY that was seized by a small number of Black New Yorkers during the late 1930s and early 1940s. While relatively small, this influx of Black firefighters sparked racial backlash from the department’s overwhelming white majority, which attempted to formally institutionalize racism and racial segregation within the department. To combat this, New York’s Black firefighters formed the nation’s first Black firefighters’ organization, The Vulcan Society, in the early 1940s. The group emerged out of, and was a part of, the Black working-class oriented Black united front that developed in New York during the 1930s and early 1940s. Like similar Black labor organizations of the time, the Vulcan Society joined workplace and community-based struggles, and successfully mobilized to prevent the formal segregation of the FDNY.
Hannah Gurman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231158725
- eISBN:
- 9780231530354
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231158725.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy
This introductory chapter presents an overview of the evolution of the diplomatic establishment in the State Department in the United States. The last sixty years has seen the history of the State ...
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This introductory chapter presents an overview of the evolution of the diplomatic establishment in the State Department in the United States. The last sixty years has seen the history of the State Department threaded with the frustrations of diplomats who felt ignored and undervalued. High posts have typically been filled by political cronies who lacked professional expertise in foreign affairs. Thus, the American diplomatic establishment has remained extremely small and dysfunctional. Reforms began in the 1880s with the passage of Civil Service Reform, or Pendleton Act, which sought to transform the federal government into a modern merit-based bureaucracy. However, these initiatives were only partially successful, as evidenced by problems that plagued diplomatic corps in the late 1920s and 1930s—presidential antagonism, congressional isolationism, and economic disaster—which reflected the structure and culture of the institution in the ensuing decades.Less
This introductory chapter presents an overview of the evolution of the diplomatic establishment in the State Department in the United States. The last sixty years has seen the history of the State Department threaded with the frustrations of diplomats who felt ignored and undervalued. High posts have typically been filled by political cronies who lacked professional expertise in foreign affairs. Thus, the American diplomatic establishment has remained extremely small and dysfunctional. Reforms began in the 1880s with the passage of Civil Service Reform, or Pendleton Act, which sought to transform the federal government into a modern merit-based bureaucracy. However, these initiatives were only partially successful, as evidenced by problems that plagued diplomatic corps in the late 1920s and 1930s—presidential antagonism, congressional isolationism, and economic disaster—which reflected the structure and culture of the institution in the ensuing decades.
David Goldberg
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469633626
- eISBN:
- 9781469633633
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469633626.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter discusses how the FDNY’s cultural of insularity evolved during the 19th Century as the department shifted from volunteerism and became professionalized. The chapter also chronicles how ...
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This chapter discusses how the FDNY’s cultural of insularity evolved during the 19th Century as the department shifted from volunteerism and became professionalized. The chapter also chronicles how Irish Americans came to dominate the FDNY and used this workplace culture to consolidate and maintain an ethnic niche within the department.Less
This chapter discusses how the FDNY’s cultural of insularity evolved during the 19th Century as the department shifted from volunteerism and became professionalized. The chapter also chronicles how Irish Americans came to dominate the FDNY and used this workplace culture to consolidate and maintain an ethnic niche within the department.
