First African-American firefighter
James Hopkins was hired in 1965 as the first African-American firefighter with the Bloomington Fire Department. Twenty-nine years later, the Bloomington native retired with the rank of captain. While a student at Bloomington High School, Hopkins played football and received an athletic scholarship to Arkansas A&M. After living several years in Arkansas, Hopkins returned to Bloomington to work at Indiana University. Mayor John Hooker, with the encouragement of civil rights activist the Rev. Ernest Butler, approached Hopkins about interviewing for a job with the fire department. Hopkins recalled that while most of his colleagues judged him on his ability, others refused to sit at the same lunch table or tried to taunt him into fighting. Hopkins said many of the firefighters with whom he initially had conflicts apologized to him years later.