More that 100 black members of the Cincinnati Fire Division will announce today that they are resigning their memberships in the local firefighters union — another possible sign of the racial divide in the city of Cincinnati.

        The Cincinnati African-American Firefighters Association will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. at 1889 Central Parkway to elaborate on the details of their withdrawal from Local 48, Cincinnati Fire Fighters Union.

        Jeff Harris Jr., president of the black firefighters association and a 21-year veteran of the fire division, said Sunday that his group has worked within Local 48 for several years trying to address “the needs of African-Americans and women” in the fire division.

        “Despite these attempts, no African-American or woman has ever served as an executive board member of Local 48, and Local 48 still does not respond in any form to public or verbal attacks on its African-American and

        women members. It is our conclusion that our input in Local 48 has no value, therefore we are withdrawing our membership.”

        Mr. Harris, 40, said his group has run candidates for the four executive board positions in the past several elections and had “no success whatsoever.” The Local 48 membership also has twice voted down, including this past week, a plan to add a human relations coordinator to the executive board.

        “I would have thought with the protests going on (the results would have been different),” Mr. Harris said.

        Black and female representation on the executive board is need to deal with race relations issues in the division, Mr. Harris said.

        “This is a diverse fire division serving a diverse community,” he said. “All members of the division are not being served adequately and equally.”

        Lt. Mark Sanders, president of Local 48, said Sunday it was “unfortunate” the black firefighters were withdrawing from the union, but added, “We will continue to represent all members (of the union).”

        Lt. Sanders disagreed with claims that all members have not been represented properly.

        As far the proposed human relations coordinator position, Lt. Sanders said “unfortunately it's been beaten.” And with what's been going on the past week, it was probably “not the best time” to get the of 800 union members out to vote.

        The proposal was defeated by 50 votes with less than half of the union's members voting. The African-American firefighters group has about 175-200 members, Mr. Harris said.

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