Frank Gribbon, an FDNY spokesman, says the department hasn't had access to call times since the city's fire and police departments' emergency call centers began merging in 2008.

WSJ: All Heat, No Light, in Fire Data

Legalized discrimination where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions or the police force or the fire department meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.

NPR: Obama And The Politics Of Being Biracial