The One Percenters

By Bobby Halton

The Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) is the home of the “one percenters” of our profession: the hard-core professional firefighters—dedicated, passionate trainers and teachers. Teachers love history. Most of us think we have a good grasp on history, especially history that has occurred during our lifetimes. We all remember December 1, 1955, as the day that Rosa Parks became the first black woman to refuse to sit in the back of the bus. But was she?

Most Americans have always thought that Rosa Parks was the first female to refuse to give up her seat, but in reality Parks was not the first. Eight months earlier, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a city bus and was arrested; a few weeks earlier, Mary Louise Smith was arrested for the same offense.

During the 1950s, Montgomery City required black riders to enter the bus, pay the driver their fare, then exit the bus and reenter through the back door. Often, unscrupulous white bus drivers took their money and drove off when they exited. The bus driver who demanded that Parks give up her seat that day in 1955 knew her because in 1943 Parks had refused to exit his bus and reenter through the back door. So on December 1, 1955, he was looking for payback.

But the real story does not begin with Rosa Parks or the others; it is really a story of Elizabeth Jennings. Elizabeth Jennings, a black woman from New York City, taught school; she was an extraordinary teacher. She also played the organ at the First Colored Congregational Church on Sixth and Second in Manhattan.

One Sunday morning long ago, Elizabeth Jennings attempted to enter a trolley not specifically marked as available for colored people and was immediately ordered to leave the vehicle. Elizabeth was in no mood for stupidity, nor did she have the time for it: She was her church’s organist, and she needed to get to the church. When the conductor told her to get off, she refused. A thug and a cretin, he started hitting her and beating her. She held her ground until the conductor was joined by a cop; she was finally thrown from the trolley.

Thankfully for all Americans, Elizabeth was not going to be treated this way. She recognized the importance of dignity; her profession required she speak out. She understood the behavior she had been subjected to was unacceptable. Elizabeth recognized her calling as a teacher and demanded she had to be a teacher to the entire nation, so she went and found a lawyer.

His name was Chester, and he was young, new to the profession and struggling. Elizabeth asked if he would take her case. Chester, with few prospects for work, agreed to take her case. The case was heard by Brooklyn Circuit Judge William Rockwell, who issued the following ruling; it read, in part, “Colored persons if sober, well behaved and free of disease” had the same rights as others and could “neither be excluded by any rules of the Company, nor by force or violence.”

Elizabeth was awarded $500 in damages, and the next day New York’s Third Avenue Railway Company desegregated all of its trolleys in the city. Within five years, all the trolley lines in New York were integrated. Sadly, few of us celebrate the real first heroine of racial equality, this teacher Elizabeth Jennings.

So what does this interesting piece of lost American history have to do with helping things go right on the fireground? What does that have to do with effecting behavioral and operational change? In a word, everything.

Elizabeth Jennings was a teacher—not a politician, not a hero, not a union boss, but a teacher. She was not looking for fame, not looking for power, not looking for money. She was hoping to make things better. She was hoping to change behavior. Changing behavior starts with us, the one percenters, the teachers.

Before we attempt to change anything—anyone, any policy, or any procedure—we must be sure that we are correct in our assumptions and beliefs. We must also ensure that the people we are trying to teach have the information they need to perform their jobs correctly. To teach, we need to communicate, listen, and be willing to learn from the very people we hope to affect. We need to respect their dignity and character.

Training the bravest demands we commit to becoming extraordinary teachers—extraordinary communicators driven to finding the solutions we need to make our profession more effective, more efficient, and safer. Hericletus said, “Out of every 100 men they send me, ten shouldn’t even be here, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”

Teachers are that one in 100. Teachers are warriors against ignorance, against apathy, and against the status quo. Teachers will help solve the staffing crisis. Teachers will help develop the new tactics. Teachers are those whom the next generation is looking to to lay those strong foundations, for guidance, for solutions. Teachers are one in 100. Teachers are the warriors who will bring the others home.

Oh, that Sunday when Elizabeth Jennings unsuccessfully attempted to ride the New York City trolley was July 16, 1854, 101 years before Rosa Parks and 10 years before the Civil War. Elizabeth Jennings continued teaching in New York and passed away in 1901.

Things turned out pretty well for Chester, too. The 24-year-old attorney, you see, was none other than Chester A. Arthur, future president of the United States of America. And it was winning Elizabeth Jennings’ case that made him a household name in New York and got him established in politics. Again, America needs to thank a one percenter, a teacher.