"How many people know that there were three Black 11-year olds on the plane that hit the Pentagon, or that 23 Black females died at the Pentagon that day?" asked Detective Christelle Rasheed, 49, of the Essex County Sheriff�s Department. She raised the question during an Aug. 30 rally to remember the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America.

The children were headed to Disney World as a reward for a contest they had won, she said.

Detective Rasheed belongs to the Gold Star Consortium, a group of Black law officers, firefighters and business people who understand that "we need to be on better terms with each other as a people."

"At the church rally and vigil, we cried together, and we listened to each other. There was collective pain felt in the church, but we left feeling better about being Black in these dangerous times," she told The Final Call.

Det. Rasheed said the group has monitored the media for a year, "and everyone shown crying is White." She said the media makes it look as if no Blacks died that day or that no Blacks worked on September 11, 2001.

"I understand that they are talking about making a statue of the canines that were used in the WTC recovery effort. But there was loud resistance from White New York City firemen when it was suggested that a statue depicting Blacks, Latinos and Whites raising the American flag at Ground Zero would be politically correct," Det. Rasheed added.

It had been suggested that the photo taken by a reporter showing three firemen raising a flag at the WTC during the first days of the recovery effort should be used as a model for a permanent memorial dedicated to the 343 firefighters that died on September 11, 2001. All three firemen in the photo are White.

"The title of your story should be �The Invisible Fireman�," Kirk Coy of Ladder Company #30 in Harlem told The Final Call. "A year later it is as though we had nothing to do with the WTC. I have 16 years on the job, and I have to constantly explain why I am here."

He said he remembers the political rhetoric that followed the attacks of how all America was united. He added that White and Black firefighters are united when they go out to fight a fire, but the racial divide kicks back in when they return to the firehouse.

On August 10, boxing promoter, Don King, joined with boxer Felix Trinidad Jr. in donating a fire truck to the 30th Ladder Company. When all of the flag waving photo ops were finished, Don King told reporters that he realized that the good done by Blacks in America is overlooked.

"There are still those who believe the hype that Blacks are shiftless and lazy, so I wanted to show that we understand the sacrifices made by all firefighters on September 11, 2001, and to show solidarity with all the people of New York City," he said.

"The sad thing is that we read more about the controversy over whether Blacks should be depicted as one of the firefighters in a statue than we did of the suffering and loss of African American life," said George Curry, editor of the National Newspaper Publisher Association news service, an organization of Black publishers.

He said that the lack of coverage of the role played by Blacks in the mainstream media on September 11, 2001 has been an issue amongst Black journalists.

"You would think that the mainstream media would use this tragedy as a means to repair the damage done to us by the media in the past," Herb Boyd, national editor of The Black World Today, an Internet news service. Mr. Boyd managed to work his way to Ground Zero as the first tower fell and has a plethora of stories to tell concerning the heroism of Black security people and workers during the first minutes of the attack.

However, not all Blacks feel that the issue of September 11, 2001 should be looked at in terms of race.

"We were not attacked because of our race. We were attacked because America is a great nation, and people are envious of what we stand for," said Assistant Chief Anthony Whitaker of the Port Authority Police Department. He was Capt. Whitaker a year ago, and the officer in charge of the 16-acre complex. Minutes before the second plane hit, he ordered the complex evacuated. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani said that such quick thinking saved the lives of 25,000 workers. However, the media rarely mentions Chief Whitaker.

"That has nothing to do with my race," he said, adding, "I did my job and I am humbled by those who remember. But I do not expect to be on television."