Winston-Salem firefighters and crews from nearby departments held a surprise fire engine parade past the home of Mr. Robert Grier to celebrate his 104th birthday.

Grier was a retired Winston-Salem Fire Department sergeant. On March 1, 1951, he was one of the “Original 8,” the Black firefighters hired to integrate the department. They staffed Engine Company No. 4 on Dunleith Avenue, North Carolina’s first integrated fire company. That was nearly three years before Brown v. Board of Education and more than a decade before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.