‘Legend and Trailblazer:’ Meet Mississippi’s first Black female firefighter

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – You’ll agree that being a profitable firefighter requires a sure diploma of toughness.

For years in Mississippi, it was a white male-dominated career till that’s, Laverne Sing got here alongside.

Sing admits changing into a firefighter was not on her radar, not to mention being the primary African American feminine firefighter in Mississippi. It was the mayor of Greenville on the time who reached out to Sing.

”So he’s requested me, he mentioned, ‘How would you prefer to be a firefighter?’ And I mentioned to him, ‘A who?’ He mentioned, ‘A firefighter.’ He mentioned a quota needs to be met, and we’d like a lady; doesn’t should be white, blue, yellow, or inexperienced. We simply want a lady, and I really feel that you’re greater than certified,” Sing mentioned.

Sing, a mom of three who was additionally caring for a disabled sibling again then, was a faculty crossing guard for the Greenville police division, making 300 {dollars} a month. She says it took per week for her to lastly comply with the mayor’s supply, not realizing till a lot later that she was additionally making historical past in 1979.

”I imply, it was simply, it was a lot prejudice happening throughout that point once I received right here,” Sing mentioned.

She mentioned there was additionally numerous disrespect and a few soiled tips she reported to the then-chief.

“I mentioned somebody put a condom on my meals within the fridge. He mentioned to me, ‘For those who don’t know who did it, don’t fear about it,’” mentioned Sing.

Sing says her preliminary uniform was a pair of bell-bottom denims and a t-shirt, the identical apparel of Parchman inmates. That modified after protests. What everybody on the Greenville Hearth Division would quickly study is that Laverne Sing was no pushover, which she attributes to her robust beginnings.

“In the course of the time once I received employed, it was, you understand, it was numerous prejudice,” Sing mentioned. “I imply, on each side, black and white, and I received to the purpose I simply began naming completely different guys how they had been, you understand. I name them cheese eaters. You realize, I did that, you understand, after which I used to be talking to the black ones then. And the white ones, I might inform them I might simply inform them immediately, ‘Y’all are simply prejudiced.’ What was their response? They wouldn’t.”

”I did have a popularity,” Sing mentioned. “I used profanity. Curse them out. I say issues {that a} feminine shouldn’t have mentioned, but it surely was in me.”

It was that willpower and her skill to do all of the duties, together with driving the massive firetrucks, that finally earned Laverne Sing the respect of her fellow firefighters again then and to at the present time.

”She means a lot to this division,” mentioned former Greenville Hearth Division captain Tony Pratt. “She’s a trailblazer, and positively she’s the mom that many individuals that had been on the hearth division didn’t have as a result of she truly nurtured majority of us.”

”A trailblazer. A legend. Somebody that has paved the best way not only for feminine firefighters however firefighters which have come after her. So once more, positively a trailblazer,” mentioned Greenville Hearth Division Chief Ruben Brown, Sr.

Sing nonetheless visits the Greenville Hearth Division. She additionally continues her work within the career part-time with Pafford Emergency Medical Companies. She has been honored by the state of Mississippi.

Congressman Bennie Thompson has entered her into the Congressional Report and she or he has additionally authored a e-book about her expertise titled “From the Cotton Fields to the State Capitol.”

”So far as I’m involved, I can say this. I’m 79 years of age, and I really feel that out of all these years, that I’ve achieved in my life was God’s plan for me,” Sing mentioned.

A plan that has paved the best way for therefore many others.

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