(Huffington Post) — When Tinisha Edwards was 10 years old and growing up in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, the firefighter across the street, especially when dressed in his dark navy ceremonial uniform, was a source of neighborhood pride. ”We were just so proud of him,” Edwards recalled. “We all looked up to him.” Kids growing up in the city are accustomed to firetrucks, the ubiquitous blare of their sirens and the men who pile in and out of them. But for Edwards and others in mostly black New York City neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, seeing firefighters who looked like them was something extraordinary. ”There are a lot of white firefighters, so for a black man to be in such a high position made me feel like I could achieve anything I set my mind to,” said Edwards, now 30. “We set our boundaries or aspirations on what we are accustomed to seeing. So seeing him set a guide for what I could aspire to in life.”
