BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : NEW CHIEF CHOSEN TO LEAD CHICAGO FIRE FIGHTERS - THE NEW CHIEF IS AFRICAN AMERICAN " CORTEZ TROTTER "" : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

  BLACK             SOCIAL            HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 New Chief Chosen to Lead Chicago Firefighters

By MONICA DAVEY;

Mayor Richard M. Daley replaced the leader of Chicago's fire department yesterday, naming the first African-American to hold the top post in a department that has wrestled with racial turmoil.

The new chief, Cortez Trotter, who has run the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, will replace James T. Joyce, who said he was retiring after 39 years as a firefighter, the last four and a half as the fire commissioner.

Chicago's department took a battering over race relations among firefighters during Mr. Joyce's term and before. In the last few months, a series of slurs, some of them against blacks, have been broadcast over the fire department's radio frequencies. And in the past, critics complained that the department failed to hire enough minority candidates, failed to promote those who were hired and tolerated racism. One videotape, which was made public, showed a 1990 firehouse party in which firefighters could be seen drinking and heard making racial slurs.

At a news conference at City Hall yesterday, Mr. Trotter spoke of a new era for the city's firefighters and said, ''Let me serve notice to those who wrongfully believe that the department is a haven for small-mindedness, offensive behavior and stagnation.''