Recalling the black fire department
100 years of history – First published in 2003-2004 He was not one of the original firemen in Station No. 2 – it was formed in 1942 when he was 12 – but Matthew Williams at 73 is one of the few surviving members of the town’s black fire department. He was looking at a picture the editor had found and brought along where he was second from the left. The others are Chief Edward Alston, George Massenburg and Robert Alston, and they were standing in front of the truck the white department bought in 1948 and gave to the black department in 1953. Frank R. Keith, the grandfather of Jimmy Keith, now the fulltime chief of the Wake Forest Fire Department, organized what was known as the colored volunteer fire department. (Readers should go to the website for the Wake Forest Fire Department to see the Keiths who were