Ex-firefighter who helped lead fight against discrimination has died

Retired firefighter and attorney Arnett Hartsfield Jr., who helped lead the fight against racial discrimination in the Los Angeles Fire Department, died Friday in L.A. He was 96.

Hartsfield, who wrote “The Old Stentorians,” a book about the history of African American firefighters in the city, had a serious fall in January and had been in declining health, said his wife, Jeanne Hartsfield.

He joined the department in 1940 and stayed with it until 1961, by which time he had earned his law degree at USC. That same year he filed charges with the city’s Civil Service Board, detailing how black firefighters were denied promotions and severely harassed at fire stations.

Hartsfield was a professor of black studies at Cal State Long Beach and helped establish the African American Firefighters Museum in a building that was formerly an all-black firehouse.

A full obituary will follow at latimes.com/obits.

david.colker@latimes.com