The new face of the Vulcan Society is a familiar one. Regina Wilson returns as president of the Black fraternal order for Fire Department of New York (FDNY) employees after first serving between 2015 and 2018. She was the first woman to lead the Vulcans since the organization was founded in 1940, and replaces outgoing head Dellon Morgan.
“My role as the president is to make sure that I am managing the organization on every level, be it our property that we own on Eastern Parkway, right [up to] managing everything that’s happened within the firehouse, EMS station, with our fire inspectors as well as our civilian members within headquarters of the FDNY,” said Wilson. “The scope of our responsibility [is] not only to our membership that works—uniform and civilian—but our responsibilities also to our community, whether it’s educating them on fire safety, going out to meet some of the needs, and handing out fire safety information [as well as] all toys at Christmas, clothing, backpacks [and] haircuts to the homeless.”
Joining her on the executive board are vice presidents Khalid Baylor and Kaseem Porter, along with treasurer Kevin Simon, Sergeant at Arms Cameron Crayton, and secretaries Tyeisha Pugh, Gregory Shephard, and Alonzo Baker. The positions are unpaid and voluntary, outside of president, which receives a stipend that Wilson says is “not nearly enough to cover the gas for the week.”
She told the Amsterdam News her return as president was largely predicated on preparing the executive board to pass the baton to future Vulcans.
“I want to be able to train my board so that they, in turn, could go to the membership, teach them so we will have a more educated organization and a board that [will] be able to lead this organization into the future,” she said. “I think we were not on that track. I wanted to be able to make sure that I supplement that for us to have this strength of leadership moving forward.”
Wilson herself formerly served as a vice president and recording secretary on the executive board before moving up to Vulcan Society president. On 9/11, she was a first responder at the World Trade Center. Today, she’s a 24-year veteran of the FDNY, a department where few firefighters are Black or women, nevermind both. When Wilson applied in 1999, she was just one of seven Black candidates and the only woman in her class, according to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Officially, she’s the 12th Black female firefighter ever to join the FDNY, according to the United Women Firefighters organization.
Mayor Eric Adams swore in the new executive board, including Wilson, last Wednesday, Feb. 15 at Queens Borough Hall’s Helen Marshall Cultural Center.
“Vulcan Society represents such a significant part of what we do,” said Adams. “Regina at the helm, the energy that she brings—and trust me, when you give her your number, you will get a call at 3 a.m. She’s committed, dedicated, and I think these are crucial times as we define what firefighters are going to represent.
The organization traces its 83-year history to supporting Black firefighters and ending discriminatory practices in the FDNY. Back in 2002, the Vulcan Society successfully sued the city over racially discriminatory hiring practices. Since then, the percentage of Black firefighters jumped from 3% to 9%. Their class action lawsuit opened the door for other groups like Latino and Asian Americans to grow their ranks within the FDNY as well. Last year, the Vulcans helped co-author a package of five bills to promote diversity within the fire department, including the Speaker Adrienne Adams-sponsored Intro. 516-A, which requires the FDNY recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups, with a mandated report annually delineating the efforts. But there’s still work to be done, says Wilson.
“People drive an hour, an hour and a half, almost two hours to come work in Bed-Stuy, East New York, and Brownsville,” she said. “But we can’t get Black faces to work in those firehouses. It’s absurd to me. It’s important to be able to have these positions for somebody that will invest so much time to drive in a neighborhood that they don’t even live [in], to be able to have the people that live [also] work there, represented.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.