THE QUEST FOR DIVERSITY IN THE S.F. FIRE DEPARTMENT

JOIN THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FOR A SPECIAL PROGRAM

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

U.S. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
The Quest for Diversity in the
San Francisco Fire Department

The San Francisco Fire Department hired no black firefighters before 1955, allowed no women to apply before 1976, and hired no women firefighters until late 1987. Today, the uniformed force includes approximately fifty percent minorities and fifteen percent women and is led by a female Chief. What is the story behind this dramatic shift in the number of women and minorities in the SFFD?

Join us for a discussion of the landmark litigation, and the consent decree that followed, featuring The Honorable Marilyn Hall Patel in conversation with the lawyers and firefighters who helped forge the pathway to diversity.

This is a joint program with the Northern District Practice Program (an approved provider of the State Bar of California), and attendance earns 1.5 hours of elimination of bias MCLE.

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For more information, please contact the
Historical Society Administrator at
(415) 522-4246 or HistoricalSociety@cand.uscourts.gov

Moderator

Hon. Marilyn Hall Patel (Ret.)
Chief Judge Emerita, Northern District of California

Contributors

Robert L. Demmons
Chief, San Francisco Fire Department, 1996-2000

Joanne M. Hayes-White
Chief, San Francisco Fire Department, 2004-present

Shauna I. Marshall
Honorable Raymond L. Sullivan Professor of Law, UC Hastings

William McNeill, III
Managing Attorney,
Legal Aid at Work - Employment Law Center

Tamar Pachter
Supervising Deputy Attorney General,
California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General

Eva Jefferson Paterson
President and Co-Founder, Equal Justice Society

Louise Renne
Founding Partner, Renne Public Law Group

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