Lawton’s first Black firefighter looks back on his hiring

LAWTON – Raymond L. Gates made history on Sept. 1, 1971, when he became the first Black firefighter on Lawton’s Fire Department.

Looking back on his hiring 50 years later, Gates didn’t talk that much about discrimination, racial slurs or misconduct by his white counterparts. He admitted the slurs were made but not directly at him. The community he initially worked in was the all-Black Ranch Oak neighborhood, and people there were pleasantly surprised to see a Black man serving in the department.

Still, Gates’ hiring would never have happened if not for a surprise encounter with former Fire Chief Harris Hancock whom Gates bumped into at city hall. At the time, Gates was employed as a sanitation worker for Lawton.

“I was paying my water bill and saw the chief at city hall,” Gates recalled. “He asked if I might be interested in becoming a firefighter. I didn’t know that much about the job and I was scared of fires plus nobody looked like me.”

However, Gates went through the hiring process and the physical tests and was ultimately hired. More than anything, Gates, now 78 years old, remembered his time as a Lawton firefighter with fondness and affection for his fellow firefighters.

“As far as working together, things were OK,” he said. “We slept and ate at the firehouse as one big family. Everything we did we did together and that included cooking and cleaning.”

After 19 years on the job, Gates retired because of a back injury.

As Lawton’s first Black firefighter, Gates probably had an advantage over other minorities who would have been in that same position. He was already known to many of the firefighters because of his time as a sanitation worker.

“Being a person of color in the late 1960s and early ’70s, it was hard to find a decent job,” said Gates. “You were either a sanitation worker, worked on a car lot or washed dishes.

“I loved the fire department. Being a firefighter is the best job there is. There’s something different every day and you don’t know what to expect.”

Whether he responded to a house fire, grass fire or auto accident, Gates knew he would be challenged each day. He has never stopped preaching the good word of the Lawton Fire Department. Every chance he gets, Gates tells people about firefighting, the benefits offered and his time on the job.

“It’s one of the best careers out there,” he said. “It offers a great retirement, and the benefits are outstanding. Plus, it’s a good paying job too.”

Gates, a 1962 graduate of the all-Black Lawton Douglass High School, also advises young people about the amount of time they’ll spend at the firehouse. Firefighters work 24 hours on, 24 hours off and then repeat the cycle two more times before having four consecutive days off.

“I tell people ‘you’re going to spend time away from home and your family won’t see you all the time, but you’re still going to spend a lot of time at home,’” he said.

Many firefighters have a second job they work during their time off, but Gates said he spent most of his free time on the golf course.

Gates remained the only Black firefighter for about two and a half years until Eugene Baker was hired. Years after most of Gates’ fellow firefighters retired, the crew started scheduling monthly luncheons at a Lawton church where they would relive the “good old days” and swap the same stories that had been told dozens of times before.

Jared Williams, Lawton’s current deputy fire chief, said the department does not have a specific program targeted at recruiting minorities, but is trying to develop one in conjunction with the Lawton Police Department and through the fire department’s appearances at job fairs and high schools.

Family tree

Firefighting stayed within the family tree when Gates’ nephew, Anthony Hall, was hired at Lawton in October 2012. Now a corporal, Hall reiterated his uncle’s comments about discrimination.

“You don’t really see it in the department as an individual, but you see it out in society,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I haven’t faced discrimination, but I’ve received a lot of questions about why I, as a Black man, am in this field.”

Hall makes it clear that he wants to be identified as an “individual firefighter” and not as a “minority firefighter.”

“Should the number (of minority firefighters) be different? Yes, to an extent, but we can’t hire someone just to meet numbers,” he said.

Hall is a member of the U.S. Army Reserves and was deployed overseas from 2003-2005 and 2018-2019.