The Fire Department, which has struggled at times in the past on matters of tone and timing when it comes to racial issues, was pitch-perfect and spot-on with the decision, announced shortly before the anniversary of 9/11, to rename its top medal in memory of former Chief of Department Peter Ganci.
Since 1869, the top honor for distinguished service bore the name of James Gordon Bennett, a 19th-century newspaper publisher who endowed the award after firefighters saved his country home from a blaze. It had become increasingly difficult to justify presenting the medal with his name attached because, whatever his good qualities, Mr. Bennett was a virulent racist who during the Civil War used the pages of the New York Herald to champion the Confederacy after its member states broke away from the Union in a quest to preserve slavery.
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