Color Them Black

After the Boston fire department rejected them because of poor exam scores in 1975, identical twins Philip and Paul Malone did not think of giving up. Back they went in 1977 with new applications and a new strategy: they declared that they were black. As such, the Malones were hired by the department, which was under pressure to take on more minority firemen. Under a court-ordered affirmative action plan, it no longer mattered that the brothers, with exam scores of 57% and 69%, fell far short of the passing grade of 82% required for whites.

For ten years no one officially questioned the Malones' self-proclaimed blackness. Then in February the twins were put on a list of blacks among firemen proposed for promotion to lieutenant. The list went to fire commissioner Leo Stapleton. He knew the Malones were the department's only identical twins, and if they weren't white, it was news to him. Stapleton asked the state's department of personnel administration to check out the twins' status. The emerging issue was pointedly expressed by black city councilman Bruce Bolling: "How could twins with Irish names, Caucasian features and no black identification from any perspective get onto the force and stay on without collusion?"

Good question, especially since the fair-haired, fair-skinned Malones had identified themselves as white on their first applications. Eventually the twins, now 33, claimed that they did not learn they were black until 1976, when, they say, their mother discovered a sepia photograph of a pale-looking woman she said was their black great-grandmother. Last month, after an investigation of their claim, they were fired.

The dismissal, which the Malones have appealed to the State Supreme Judicial Court, has Boston churning. Amid rumors that there have been other phony claims of minority status, mayor Ray Flynn ordered a review of the hiring practices in the fire and school departments. Two weeks ago, Flynn disclosed that at least five other fire fighters will be asked to prove they are not white.