My dad, Rev. Dr. Lloyd E. Marcus, Jr., is a black pioneer of civil rights.  In 1952, when the door opened for blacks to take the test to become Baltimore City firefighters, Dad ran through it.  Stationed at Engine 6, Dad's working conditions were humiliatingly racist.  He was not allowed to pour himself a cup of coffee from the same coffeepot as the white firefighters.  Nor was Dad allowed to use the same eating utensils as the whites.  Still, with a wife and five kids to feed, Dad relished the opportunity. Dad was the assistant pastor of a Baltimore storefront church.  Rejected by his fellow firefighters, Dad often retreated to the fire house's storage room to read his Bible and pray.  Taunting Dad, firefighters named the storage room Marcus's chapel.  After two years, a new firefighter was assigned to Engine 6.  The white firefighter came upstairs and asked Dad to join the crew...(Read Full Post)