Ruth Carol Taylor
Ruth Carol Taylor was the first African-American flight attendant in the United States. Her first flight was aboard a Mohawk Airlines flight from Ithaca to New York City in 1958.
Early life
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a family of Black, White, and Cherokee ancestry, her mother was Ruth Irene Powell Taylor, a nurse, and her father was William Edison Taylor, a barber. When Ruth was young, her family moved to a farm in upstate New York.Taylor attended Elmira College and graduated as a registered nurse from the Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City.
Career
Hired in December 1957, on February 11, 1958, Taylor was the flight attendant on a Mohawk Airlines flight from Ithaca to New York, the first time such a position had been held by an African American. She was let go within six months as a result of Mohawk's then-common marriage ban.Taylor was later significantly involved in covering the 1963 March on Washington and as an activist for consumer affairs and women's rights. She wrote The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America, whose purpose is to "save lives - the lives of Black African Males who are on the Endangered list" in view of the endemic racism in the United States towards African-Americans.
In 2008, 50 years after her historic flight, her accomplishments were formally recognized by the New York State Assembly.