KOKOMO, Ind. — The Kokomo Fire Department honored its first Black firefighter Tuesday.
John Harris, the only Black man to be a Kokomo firefighter in the 1800s, received a headstone Aug. 3, 2021 — 82 years after his death.
According to the Kokomo Fire Department, Harris was born March 1, 1859, in Richmond, Virginia and moved to Kokomo in 1880 when he was 21 years old. He died Aug. 3, 1939, at 80 years old.
Harris was married to his wife, Lillian, for 53 years and had four children together.
As well as being a firefighter, the fire department said Harris also had jobs as a paper hanger, cook and local fisherman.
The Kokomo Fire Department said Police Chief Doug Stout donated the headstone to honor Harris and his late brother, Jeff Stout, who was a volunteer firefighter in Rushville.
The Kokomo Tribune reports the headstone came about after Kokomo Fire Department Division Chief Glenda Myers was doing background research on Harris and went out to the cemetery to look for his burial site but came up empty.
“We have to know that there were and are Black heroes in our own community,” Kokomo resident Celestine Johnson told the Kokomo Tribune, whose family did the genealogy research into Harris. “That there are those people who stepped out and stepped up in order to better the community. … And I hope that he [Harris] knows that we in this community are still proud of him and are proud of his willingness to serve the community as a trailblazer.”
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