ENGINE 22
West Oakland, California
(circa early 1950's)

The Men Of Engine 22
[Ernest Allen Sr. standing, center]

Until the early 1950's, the City of Oakland operated a segregated Fire Department, with most of the AfricanAmerican firefighters stationed at Engine 22 in West Oakland, under white officers. The Alameda County Branch of the NAACP decided to bring a lawsuit to end this practice. Ernest Allen Sr. volunteered as plaintiff, and the co-counsels were Clinton White (later to serve as a California Superior Court Judge) and Lionel Wilson (later to serve first as a California Superior Court Judge and afterwards as Mayor of the City of Oakland). The Allen lawsuit lost, but the publicity it generated embarrassed the City of oakland, and eventually forced the integration of the city's Fire Department.