This content originated as a Facebook posting.

NCVFA history. Fabric (felt) pennant for the 1956 annual meeting of the North Carolina Volunteer Firemen’s Association, AKA the colored firemen’s association. They met in Warrenton in July of that year, for their 66th annual gathering.

^ Warrenton is notable in the state’s history of black firefighters as having the longest-serving black fire company, dating to the 1860s. They operated until 2004, when the municipal Warrenton FD merged with Warrenton Rural FD.

This one is a rare find, as surviving artifacts of the NCVFA are few and far-between. That is, to date. More on this later, as we’ll be attempting some shaking-of-the-bushes to see if we can find more.

It’s a felt banner, measure some twenty inches in length. This image was created in sections, using a flatbed scanner. It has a clear plastic sheet affixed with staples, and thus the source of the ripples seen in part of the picture.

From the collection of the (future) Plummer Hook & Ladder Museum in Warrenton. They’re a non-profit organization housed in the town’s old fire station, and who are steadily working on their facility and exhibits, but are still a ways away from opening to the public.