the battle for integration began with the mayoral election of 1953. the newly elected mayor wanted to install his own fire chief, and sought a pretext to oust the then current head of the lafd, fire chief engineer john alderson. a month after taking office, he was given a petition backed by the naacp that protested that the lafd did not represent the people it served because it was not integrated. the mayor, no fan of fair employment practices, sought to use this petition to get the fire commission to fire the chief engineer. alderson wanted no interference from city hall but then was beset on another front. when the fire commission ordered him to produce a plan on integration and the white ranks learned of this, they raised $500,000 and formed a fact finding committee to investigate whether integration was possible and petitioned the fire commission to hold any decision until oct 14, 1954. before the results of this committee was heard, the commissioners ordered alderson to integrate, which he began to do. 4 black firefighters were sent to other houses from the 2 segregated ones and tensions ramped up, of course the fact finding committee reported back to the commission that under no circumstances should integration occur. by then, the firehouses that were integrated became hellhouses for the black firefighters. nightly hazing had become warped and degrading, and when 6 more blacks were sent to old #10, the tension was palpable. it had gotten so bad, by the end of 1955, chief alderson removed the men from the white firehouses (so-called ‘hate houses’), for their safety, much to the chagrin of the fire commission, which then fired him for insubordination. wearied by the year's events and vilified by "the eagle"'s campaign to remove the segregationist, alderson announced that he would retire at years end. the commission sheepishly let the dismissal drop, as it seemed they were being petty firing the retiring chief engineer.