Matthew Miley became a firefighter for the city of St. Louis on April 3, 1960, two years after the St. Louis Fire Department began integrating firehouses. He was the only African American assigned to the firehouse at 12th and Spruce Streets. When Miley joined the department, there were 60 black firefighters on a force of 1500. Due to the inequities in the department and the lack of support from Local 73, the firefighters union, Miley joined with other African American firemen to establish the Firefighters Institute of Racial Equality (FIRE) in 1967. FIRE was formally launched in 1968 and continues as a civil rights organization. Miley retired from the St. Louis Fire Department in 1989. In 1972, FIRE hosted the second convention of the Black Firefighters Convention, in which the International Association of Black Professional Firefighters (IABPFF) participated, in St. Louis at the Sheraton Jefferson Hotel. The IABPFF was founded in 1970 during the first convention of Black Firefighters Convention. St. Louis firefighters were involved from the group’s inception and St. Louis firefighter Daniel Austin represented local firefighters as a member of the first board. Matthew Miley owned the Speakeasy Lounge and in 1971, joined the Tavern Owners Association, a trade organization established by African American bar owners in 1968 to protect their interests. Miley was instrumental in reorganizing the group into an association that worked to represent its membership. He convinced the group to include package liquor and convenience stores and to change the name to the St. Louis Tavern and Independent Liquor Licensees (STILL) to reflect the addition of retail outlets. Soon after joining and rebranding the group, Miley was elected president. He led the organization on two separate occasions, from 1971 to 1982 and again from 1985 to 1992. STILL became a force on the local and state levels. The group retained a full-time lobbyist for the first time and was able to exercise considerable influence on behalf of independently owned bars and liquor stores. At its height, it represented over 100 bars and other small liquor retailers in African American neighborhoods, approximately 75 percent of the total. STILL brought similar groups across the state (black and white) together to create the Missouri Association of Beverage Retailers (MABR) and was instrumental in forming a national organization, the National United Merchants Beverage Association (NUMBA). Miley recognized STILL’s potential for community service. The group raised funds for scholarships awarded annually to one student in each of St. Louis’ ten public schools, assisted financially distressed families, and engaged in other charitable activities. By 2000, STILL began to decline and dissolved on December 18, 2001.