Not First Class, Not Business Class, Not Coach
Even as paying passengers, African Americans faced discrimination. Prior to the WWII, air travel was only affordable to the elite. It was considered a luxury mode of travel, which appealed most to affluent business men. Passengers wore their finest clothes and flight attendants, then called stewardesses, literally provided white-glove service. It was safe to assume that any African American who flew on a commercial airline was among the economically privileged. But money or not, discrimination was everywhere, so much so that a black person could be removed from a plane to make room for a white passenger-as was the case with baseball legend Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player, whose fame probably eclipsed that of Michael Jordan for that time. During the 1950s, Robinson and his wife were removed from their seats prior to take-off to make room for two white passengers. No extenuating circumstances were ever identified as a reason for the decision.
Similarly, in 1954, while headed to Australia for several scheduled concerts, equally well-known jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and her band were bumped from a connecting flight in Hawaii for what she called racially motivated reasons. Fitzgerald and her entourage waited three days for an available flight.
Few blacks worked in the airline industry. Those who did, held jobs such as porters- carrying passengers’ luggage through the airports.
