Celebrating Glen Cove F.D. Co. 4’s first Black firefighter

Fifty years ago, Jeffrey Jackson Sr. officially joined the Glen Cove Volunteer Fire Department, the first Black man to serve in Company 4. Throughout the years, while also working in Glen Cove’s Department of Public Works until his retirement about 30 years ago, Jackson moved up the GCVFD ranks. He served as secretary, second lieutenant and line officer in Company 4. Then, after injuring a knee, Jackson joined the Fire Police, where he was a third officer, first officer and captain. 

Jackson, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Jan. 19, always knew he wanted to be a firefighter, but it wasn’t easy for a Black man to join in the 1960s. Before his acceptance into the department in 1962 as a probationary firefighter in training, Black recruits were required to have a sponsor to vouch for them. 

“That was a way of holding anybody that was a minority out of there,” Jackson said. “You had to be recognized by somebody white or somebody else that you knew to get in there. We walked the picket line. We did a little bit of everything, and we finally broke it. We finally got in. It took a little while.”

“At that time, there shouldn’t have been discrimination,” Lucy Jackson, Jeffrey’s wife of 58 years, said. “Kids were going to school together. Everything was like black and white.” 

James Davis, former president of the Glen Cove NAACP, worked to reform the Fire Department. Davis advised Jackson to join when a position opened, after Leander Willet, from the Harlem Hellfighters, was initially denied because of his Oyster Bay address. “What happened was, the city wouldn’t take his application . . . because he had an out-of-town address,”Jackson recalled. “Mr. Davis came back to me and asked if I would take Leander’s spot. And I told him, ‘Yeah, I’ll take it. I’d like to join.’” 

Jackson’s wife described him as a dedicated firefighter, eager to be on the front lines when he was younger. “He would just run,” Lucy said. “We could be sitting down at the table for Christmas dinner, Thanksgiving dinner, Easter dinner, and if that fire [alarm] were to go off, his plate is on the table and he’s gone.” 

Jackson started in the department with Thermond Greene, a Black firefighter who served in the Pacific Engine & Hose Company. They led the way for others such as Jimmy Holmes, the first Black in the Chemical Company, and Jerome Goodine, the first to serve in Hook and Ladder. 

Throughout his career, Jackson said, he worked to fight the stereotypes of Black men. “It was no walk in the park, because a lot of times they expected you to mess up, especially being Black,” he said. “They expect you be drunk all the time, don’t know what you’re doing, never make your meetings. And that is one thing I never did.” 

According to his wife, Jackson was known as “the chaplain” in the department. “He was the only one down there that didn’t smoke or drink,” Lucy said. 

By example, Jackson began a legacy. His son, the late James Jackson, was a second lieutenant for Hook and Ladder for about 10 years. Now his grandson Ian Jackson, 25, is following in his grandfather’s footsteps, as a firefighter in Chemical Company. 

Jackson’s daughter and Ian’s mother, Carrie Jackson, 50, set up a drive-through celebration of her father’s birthday last week, to honor his accomplishments with the help of family, friends and the Glen Cove community. “We’ve always been very proud of him, just extremely proud to have him as our father,” Carrie said. “He’s just our hero. He gave us a lot of ambition to do things. ” 

Jackson is still first officer of the GCVFD Fire Police. He will officially celebrate his 50 years of service in the department in March. 

“You don’t retire from the Fire Department,” Jackson said. “You just fade away. I’ll do it as long as I can.” 

“It’s beautiful how the department has grown,” Carrie Jackson said, “and it’s so much more welcoming.”