Kelvin Cochran was nominated by former President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Fire Administrator, the highest position in the nation for a fire official. It was the crowning achievement for a decorated and well-respected firefighter who had been overcoming obstacles and breaking barriers his entire career.
And yet, in 2015, the city of Atlanta abruptly fired him. Now he faced a new obstacle, not because of his race. This time, he was discriminated against because of his Christian beliefs.
Who is Kelvin Cochran?
Kelvin Cochran spent over 30 years serving communities as a firefighter.
His decades of service began as a dream. When he was just five years old, he witnessed a house across the street from his home on fire. He watched local firefighters arrive at the scene to quickly extinguish the blaze. He was inspired by their bravery. From that moment, he knew that one day he would pursue a career as a firefighter.
Years later, he did just that. In 1981, Kelvin Cochran became one of the first black Americans to be hired by the local fire department in Shreveport, Louisiana.
For the next few years, he earned promotion after promotion but still suffered the indignities that were a sad fact of life in the Deep South in those days. Unlike other professionals, firefighters work together in 24-hour shifts, and many of his white peers didn’t care to share close quarters with a black man. Kelvin slept in a separate bed, used separate utensils, and endured relentless racial slurs.
None of this took Kelvin by surprise. He’d had no illusions about what stood between himself and his dream, and he met all the bigotry and resentment with professionalism. He memorized the locations of all the streets, block numbers, and fire hydrants in his part of the city, and he knew the fastest way to get anywhere. Pretty soon, his colleagues all wanted him at their ear when responding to calls and began to embrace him.
“I never saw myself as a victim of circumstances—an underdog,” he says. “I saw [this] as just a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate that race is not a factor if a person really has a calling on their life to do what firefighters are called to do.”
His hard work and dedication helped him move up the ranks, and he became the department’s chief in 1999.
Nine years later, Kelvin was appointed to the same position at the Atlanta Fire and Rescue Department. In 2009, he was nominated by then-President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the U.S. Fire Administrator, the highest position in the nation for a fire official.
Kelvin held that position for 10 months, but the Atlanta Fire and Rescue Department struggled without his leadership. The new mayor of Atlanta “begged” Kelvin to return, which he did in 2010. He once again led the department with great success and was even named Fire Chief of the Year by Fire Chief magazine in 2012.
But the mayor abruptly turned on Kelvin in 2014. Why?
A Devout Christian Exercising His Free Speech
Why would a city that “begged” Kelvin to return turn around and fire him four years later? Unfortunately, it was because he dared to express his religious beliefs.
Outside of his work as fire chief in Atlanta, Kelvin–a devout Christian–often served in his church. As he was leading a Bible study for men in 2012, he came across God’s question to Adam in Genesis 3:11, “Who told you that you were naked?”
Kelvin began to think more about this question, and he felt called to write a Bible study to help men fulfill God’s purpose for their lives. He quickly realized that he had enough material to write a book, which he finished and self-published in 2013. The book’s title bore the same question that God asked Adam: Who Told You That You Were Naked?
Even though Kelvin wrote and published the book on his own time and expense, he went above and beyond to ensure he was not violating any city rules by publishing the book throughout the entire process. He asked the City of Atlanta Ethics Officer if he was allowed to write a non-work-related book about his faith while serving as a city employee, and she assured him that he could. She also told him that he could state his position as Atlanta’s fire chief in the “About the Author” section.
Kelvin gave copies of the book to the mayor, some Christian colleagues, and three members of the Atlanta City Council. For months, no fire department employees complained about the book after Kelvin handed out copies.
But all of that changed in November 2014.
Fired for His Beliefs
One day, Kelvin was informed that a fire department employee had brought the book to a city councilmember who identified as gay. The employee had apparently informed the councilmember about the book’s Christian teachings on sexual morality. And while Kelvin’s book is not about sexual morality, it does address the topic on a few pages and teaches—in accordance with Scripture—that sex is reserved for marriage between a man and a woman.
The councilmember spoke with the human resources commissioner. This led to a meeting involving several high-ranking city officials and aides to the mayor. Kelvin never got an opportunity to state his case because he was only informed of this meeting by the city police chief and another official after it had already happened. In that meeting, city officials decided that they would recommend firing Kelvin Cochran as fire chief.
A few days later, the city suspended Kelvin for 30 days without pay. It sent him a letter informing him of the suspension, but it did not provide any details about why he had been suspended.
The same day, the mayor issued a statement saying he was “surprised and disappointed to learn of this book,” even though he had received a copy of the book 10 months earlier. He also announced that Kelvin would be forced to complete “sensitivity training.” The mayor’s statement confirmed that Kelvin had been suspended because of the religious beliefs he expressed in his book.
When the 30-day suspension ended, the city of Atlanta fired Kelvin.
Kelvin was good at his job–he had spent many years serving as a fire chief. The city of Atlanta and even the U.S. government had recognized his excellent service. Kelvin was fired simply because the city was hostile towards his religious beliefs.
And that hostility was a clear violation of the First Amendment. And even more so, the city did not follow the proper protocols for terminating an employee, which further violated the law.
“To be terminated for being intolerant is hard to take when there’s so much that the City of Atlanta itself has in my track record that shows I’ve lived out inclusion. I’ve lived out tolerance,” Kelvin said. “Tolerance is a two-way street, and we cannot surrender to the redefining of tolerance in our country. We have to stand for our faith.”
Kelvin had no choice but to take legal action against the city. That’s why Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit on Kelvin’s behalf in February 2015.
A victory for free speech
After years of legal battles, Kelvin and his legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom achieved a key victory for the First Amendment.
In 2017, a federal district court ruled that Atlanta’s policies restricting its employees’ speech violated the Constitution. Specifically, the court ruled that the city cannot require its employees to get the city’s permission before they speak about their beliefs.
Since the city violated Kelvin’s rights when it fired him for his beliefs, it agreed to pay him $1.2 million in the wake of the court’s ruling.
This was a huge victory for free speech! Free speech is for everyone, and that includes government employees. The government cannot require its employees to ask permission before exercising their First Amendment rights.
Every American has the God-given, constitutionally protected right to express their beliefs. Kelvin should never have been punished for expressing his religious beliefs in his book. Thankfully, the court system recognized this and ensured the city of Atlanta was held accountable for unjustly firing Kelvin.
This was a monumental victory, not just for Kelvin Cochran, but for all Americans. Because if the government can violate the free speech rights of someone with such a track record of excellence like Kelvin, what is to stop it from violating the free speech rights of any American?
Will you support ADF today so that we can continue to stand in the gap for people like Kelvin?
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