Why are there so few Black Cleveland firefighters?

CLEVELAND — Should the way Cleveland hires firefighters go up in flames?

A News 5 Investigation found that despite decades of government oversight and legal battles to increase diversity, the Cleveland Division of Fire Department remains mostly white.

We found 74% of the department's firefighters are white. Only 13% are Black.

Cleveland added 31 new firefighters to its ranks this September. None of whom are Black.

'An ongoing challenge'

"I'm not surprised," Ronnie Dunn said.

Dunn is a professor of urban studies at Cleveland State University who has studied diversity within the city's safety forces for decades.

"There's been challenges in increasing diversity in our public safety forces," Dunn said.

Over 50 years ago, the federal government ordered Cleveland to hire more Black firef