Ruth Carol Taylor, Women's Rights Activist

Meet America's first black flight attendant, Ruth Carol Taylor.  On February 11, 1958, Ruth Carol Taylor worked her initial flight after being hired by Mohawk Airlines.  Ms. Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 27, 1931 to Ruth Irene Powell Taylor, a nurse, and William Edison Taylor, a barber.

In 1955, Ms. Taylor graduated from the Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City as a registered nurse.  After working for several years as a nurse, she decided to break the color barrier that existed in the career of airline “stewardesses.”   

Stewardesses at that time were hired based on attractiveness and height/weight conformity.  Ms. Taylor applied to Trans World Airline (TWA) but was rejected and she subsequently filed a complaint against the company with the New York State Commission on Discrimination.

Six months after making history, Ms. Taylor married Rex Legall but was forced to resign from Mohawk because of another discriminatory restriction that stewardesses remain single or do not become pregnant.

She lived in the British West Indies, the UK and Barbados, where she founded Barbados’ first professional nursing journal and became active in civil rights.  She returned to New York, and in 1977 co-founded the Institute for Inter Racial Harmony, which developed a test to measure racist attitudes known as the Racism Quotient.  In 1985, Taylor wrote The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America, a survival guide to help young black men succeed in a racist society.

In 2008, fifty years after her historic flight, Ms. Taylor’s accomplishment was formally recognized by the New York State Assembly.  The activist lives in Brooklyn, New York and goes by the name Carol Taylor.

Read more about Ms. Carol Taylor at:

http://shemadehistory.com/her-story-ruth-carol-taylor/

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/taylor-ruth-carol-1931/

Claudia and Angela

On behalf of the IMC

TTADC