was montels father the first black fire chief in this country? if so was it new york?

Answer 1

This candid autobiography recounts the career of the first African American fire chief of a major U.S. city (and father of television talk-show host Montel Williams). Williams's personal recollections of middle-class African American life in Harlem and then Baltimore from the late 1930s to the present reveal a struggle for pride amidst everyday racial humiliations
http://www.amazon.com/Firefighter-Herman-Williams-Jr/dp/1588250067

A few years later, after joining the Baltimore Fire Department, Williams worked side-by-side (risking life and limb) with the same firemen who refused to let him eat at the same table with them. Yet, he refused to give up, struggling through 40 years of discrimination and staggering obstacles to become the first African-American fire chief of a major U.S. city.

By the time Williams retired in 2000, he had been at the helm of the fire department for eight years. During that time, he was instrumental in the giveaway of 70,000 smoke detectors to city residents, an act that is credited with reducing the number of fires in the city by more than half in 1999. During Williams’s tenure, the city of Baltimore also set record lows in the number of fire deaths.

Answer 2

Wonderful story isn't it... Makes you wonder about white racism doesn't it???