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Nearly every child contemplates what he wants to be when he grows up. Some fantasize about careers based on what they see in the movies or on television. Others idolize fathers or older brothers, vowing to follow in familiar footsteps. For Terrance Griffin, the dream of becoming a firefighter was much more personal. After dislocating his knee as a child, Griffin sprawled on the ground in agony until a team of firefighters came to his rescue. Griffin remembers that day as the one firefighters earned his “gratitude and undying respect.” It was also the day his dream of becoming a firefighter was born.
Like Griffin, Phillipe Victor idolized firefighters and aspired to become one himself. He hoped becoming a firefighter would make him a hero in the eyes of his wife and child.
Griffin and Victor, along with thousands of other applicants, took an exam in 1995 to qualify for entry-level firefighter positions with the City of Chicago. Both men were thrilled to pass the exam and eagerly awaited contact from the City to move on to the next step in the application process. Unfortunately, that call never came. Griffin, Victor, and many other firefighter hopefuls became victims of Chicago’s racially discriminatory hiring practices, which shattered their dreams of fighting fires and saving lives.
Any applicant who scored 65 and above passed the exam and was fully qualified to serve as a firefighter. Yet, the City arbitrarily chose a cut-off score of 89 for continuing the firefighter application process. The City knew that this cut-off score was statistically meaningless, but it continued to use the cut-off score in eleven rounds of firefighter hiring, even though it disproportionately excluded African-American applicants from becoming firefighters.
With the help of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Griffin, Victor, and over 6,000 other African-Americans who passed the test but did not score above the 89 cut-off sued the City for violating their rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2004, a federal district court held that Chicago unlawfully discriminated against the African-American applicants. The City did not appeal this ruling, but it tried to deny responsibility for the illegal hiring practice by arguing the complaints were not filed in time. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court where LDF’s Director-Counsel, John Payton, argued on behalf of the firefighter applicants. The court agreed with Mr. Payton, ruling unanimously that the City discriminated each and every time it used a hiring practice that arbitrarily blocked qualified minority applicants from employment.
As a result of the Court’s ruling, Griffin, Victor, and thousands of qualified firefighters who were denied a fair shot at a job with the department could finally have an opportunity to join the ranks in service to the people of Chicago. Though Griffin now works as an electrician, the city’s discrimination was not enough to kill his dream of becoming a firefighter. “My deepest hopes are that justice can be served,” he says. “I look forward to the day that I can join my brother in the ranks of the Chicago Fire Department.” Currently, Victor serves as a field inspector for the Illinois Department of Transportation. He hopes that his daughter, now fifteen, does not experience the same discriminatory hiring practices that he did. “Should any minority want to be a firefighter,” he says, “I hope that the City of Chicago will do the right thing.”
LDF’s victory in this case goes well beyond the immediate results for Griffin, Victor, and other Chicago firefighter applicants. It should help ensure that no other fire department or employer uses a discriminatory test, and LDF will go the extra mile to make sure that they do not.