The Girlfriends S6/E4: Wings of Change

Hi, I'm Nalmick Shane Wolfheart, host of The Girl Friends, Flight or Fight.

“You can access seasons 1 through 5 of The Girl Friends, and each episode of The Girl Friends,”

Flight or Fight, 100% add free and one week early through The Eye-Hart True Crime Plus subscription, exclusively on Apple Podcasts. You also get access to chart-topping shows like the trail, paper ghosts, the godmother, and more. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for Eye-Hart True Crime Plus, and subscribe.

Nalvel Hey you, it's Nal here. Before we start, a quick heads-up. This episode includes references to racism, racist language, and threats of sexual violence. It's a tough listen at times, but it's also a story of bravery and change. If any of the themes feel difficult, you'll find links to support organizations in the episode description. You're a young woman in the 1950s, and you want a job. Well, you'd have a few avenues that you'd be encouraged to pursue.

Nursing, teaching, being a man's secretary, librarian, maybe, or working behind the counter in a shop.

“But what if you craved more excitement than the Dewey decimal system?”

That type of mid-century woman often turned to one profession. Airline Stewartis. At some point while I was in college, I kind of decided you know I would really like to travel to learn and see about other cultures in the world. This woman thinks she'd make a perfect Stewartis.

Oh, I was very confident. I love people, I love being around people of different races and things of that nature. I enjoyed it, I enjoyed people, so I knew I would enjoy that kind of position. It's a familiar trajectory. In fact, her story is so familiar, I dare you to even guess her name.

You can call me Pat and your generation. There's like every other woman who's called Pat. Yeah, well, I'm Patricia Oltsos, whichever one you'd like to use is fine. Our latest Patricia is Patricia Banks Edmiston.

In 1956, she began her first move towards realizing the Stewartis dream.

It started when she arrived at the Grace Downs Air Career School in New York City. I didn't allow myself to feel insecure, especially when you're the only black person in the room and in the school. Presenting myself in a positive way was a very important part of me being there.

“I think what people would expect out of you were the negative things.”

Black people were just negative back in those days of the white people, so I went with this positive attitude. Patricia was walking into what was essentially a finishing school for wannabe Stewartuses. She'd pay to learn the ropes of the job and then she'd have interviews with airlines, hoping her investment in training would make her a shoe in with recruiters. One ad for the school read. Study for five short weeks in special accelerated classes.

Then your anxiety will dissolve into secure tranquility as you engage in adventures of the sky at top pay with rapid advancement assured. Can you tell me what you learned at the school? Oh, you learned all kinds of aspects about flying. How to treat people, how to wait on people, the emergency parts of flying, what happens if there's an accident. The training was excellent, I think.

Classes on offer also included daintiness from tub to plain, charm secrets, figure analysis, and muscle concentration. And of course, no Stewart is training would be complete without grooming instruction. Patricia sat down in front of the row of mirrors. Then she looked at the makeup available. It was all for white skin.

They made my face up and when I looked at myself, I was white. And I said, oh my god, I've got a home on the train like this. I don't think I'll ever forget this experience. I mean, my face was a mess.

They never made any consideration.

Okay, we've got an African American here now. We need to change the makeup situation because medics. I couldn't wait to my mother saw my face.

Yeah, I just laughed at it. I said, just here we go again. Rage gets you nowhere. And rage could only block the road you'd need to take in a positive manner. Pat had to cough up $225 for the school fees, not shut change in the 50s.

She managed to pay on an installment plan. But initially, she thinks it's worth it. She comes out with grades in the high 90s in all of her classes. So you have a day of interviews with the airlines to become a student. You wake up that morning.

How do you feel?

“Fine, I think you're a little nervous, but I had confidence that I would do well.”

The interviews were very basic. You may have had an interview with one or two people from a specific airline. The qualifications were basically a height. You'll wait things of that nature. You had to be, I think, over 5-4, you couldn't be any more than like 120 pounds.

Well, they would ask you certain things about your age, your education, things that you'd like to do. Why did you want to be an airline, so it is, and things of that nature? You had interviewed with TWA with Capital and with Mohawk. So how did they let you know whether you had been accepted?

You actually never got a rejection.

Oh, really? I was just never communicated with. Patricia goes to the Grace Downs Air Career Schools director. And asks, why are the airlines just ghosting me? The director suggests that Patricia has her tooth repaired. A chipped upper molar tucked away in the back of her mouth.

I don't even know how they saw it, but they did mention a tooth.

“Were they using this as a pretext for not hiring you?”

Oh, yes, yes. Of course they had to find something. I can't imagine you just let that go, though. No, I went to a dentist and he cleaned up the tooth and had fixed, but that didn't matter, no one decided to see me again. The airlines didn't want to re-interview Patricia,

even with her new flawless smile.

It had been five months since she first applied for a position.

And the response was just crickets. Then an instructor at the school pulls Patricia aside. She has something important to tell her. I was standing outside of the school at the time. She walked over to me and she said, Patricia,

“I don't like seeing you have to go through what you're going through.”

But the airlines do not hire African Americans and flight capacities. She knew I wasn't going to get hired. So that was a trigger. A trigger for what? Tell me. For me to move.

In this episode, what happened when Patricia Banks and Miston moved? Patricia was one of the first of many to battle for equality in the skies. And her struggle unfolded some time before Pat Gibbs ever put on a pillbox hat. Patricia's story is a prequel, a monumental one. Because Patricia Banks and Miston grabbed the wheel of history and changed its direction.

It was racism and I got tired of the racism. From the teams at Novel and I Heart Podcasts, this is The Girl Friends. Season 6, Flight or Fight. This is your host speaking, Now McShane Wolfheart. [Music]

Episode 4, Wings of Change. I was shocked that's all I can tell you because I couldn't believe that this was a reality. It's a summer's day in 1956, a 19 year old Patricia is standing on Fifth Avenue.

She's just been told that she'll never be hired by an airline as a hostess because she's black.

I had seen so much racism from the time I was a young woman. It kind of surprised you, but you say, wow, this is really happening again. You say to yourself, racism is a reality. It exists.

This was far from Patricia's first brush with discrimination.

I grew up as a fairly light skin Negro. I went to a high school, my sister and a friend of mine, Thay Young and myself, with the first black students in the school.

“I remember walking in the door of the school and a teacher asked me where was I from.”

And I told her I was born and raised in Harlem and she reacted like having a heart attack. Oh, no, no, you said you were born and Yemen. So she asked you where you were from, you told her, and then she corrected you. Yes, she told me I was born and Yemen and it was interesting. I had to go find out what Yemen was and I had a student one time.

She looked at me and she said, my uncle said that you people put a lot of grease in your hair. And I said, pardon me, put your hands in my hair and she did. And I said to her, please go home and tell him he's a liar. Patricia's collection of these kinds of incidents accumulate throughout her life. Mounted like straws on the proverbial camels back.

The airlines rejection, it was the final straw.

“I got tired of what they were doing to us, limiting us from doing things that we wanted to do.”

And I just felt that this could no longer exist. I was really tired of it. Patricia gets home from the Grace Down School and that evening she picks up the phone. She makes a call to a friend who connects her to Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. A civil rights leader and the first black congressman from New York.

When I spoke to Adam Clayton Powell, he referred me to the New York State Commission against discrimination. It wasn't long before Patricia was in their offices explaining her issue. Though lawyers from the Anti-Discrimination Commission think that this sounds like a compelling case, but they still need to gather evidence.

You might think the airlines had never hired a black woman as a stewardess.

Case closed.

“Well, actually it's more complicated than that.”

Discrimination is a very difficult thing to prove. They would never say why they were doing anything that was racist, never. They wouldn't say it explicitly. No, no way. But there is a note from a 1954 American Airlines stewardess supervisor manual that said,

"Her nose is as attractive as it fits in with the general scheme of the remainder of her face. prominent hook noses, broken or broad noses, of course, are unsuitable." This is a manual for who to hire. The manual continues, of course, lips should not be excessively full, and hair should not be course. What does this tell you?

Who has these attributes? Black women, they're discriminating, and they think a very cool way. Despite disappearing to be pretty obviously discriminatory, nowhere on this memo, nor any other shred of airline corporate paper was their evidence of an explicit company policy stating, "Do not hire black stewardesses."

So Patricia's lawyers doubled down. The commission worked very hard doing their research with the airline industry, looking at personal records, seeing who may have filed for the job as a person of color. It took a long time. And then they came to the decision that they had enough information and data to take it to court.

Patricia filed complaints against Mohawk, capital, and TWA. For various legal reasons, the window for taking action on Mohawk and TWA had closed. But the case against capital, that one stuck.

When the hearing date rolled around, it had been nearly three years since she first applied for the stewardess position.

In the meantime, Mohawk did hire one black woman, Ruth Carroll Taylor. She was only in their employment for six months. Capital airlines, on the other hand, employed nearly 600 stewardesses. None of them were black. I wasn't sure whether I was going to get hired, but I was determined that someone else of color was going to get hired.

And because they are African-American, that they could not pursue their dreams.

And I just felt this had to stop.

“July 14, 1959, turned out to be a relatively cold and misty day for a New York summer.”

fog obscures the sky as Patricia navigates her way to reach the hearing. Her case against capital airlines is about to commence. While walking in, I felt secure. I was not frightened by it. I prayed that it would work. I prayed that it would open up this racism in the airline industry that people would know what's going on in the airline industry of the United States.

If Patricia wins, the airline will be ordered to hire her and start hiring black women in general. But the case is far from a cakewalk.

“It's being held before three members of the Anti-Discrimination Commission.”

Jay Edward Conway, John A Davis, and Mary Louise Nice. These are the people that have to be convinced that racism was indeed taking place in the airline's hiring process. The person charged for that task, Patricia's lead lawyer, Henry Spitz. As I mentioned, there is no explicit corporate policy at capital prohibiting the hiring of black stuertices. And as the case begins, it's clear that no one from the airline is going to admit racial profiling either.

The vice president of corporate affairs, Altheo Hanlan, steps up to testify. She says that girls of 18 and 19 usually lack the required experience in public contact to be a good stewardess.

“Patricia was a teenager when she was interviewed. That's why she was rejected.”

When asked if the fact that Patricia's black had influenced the rejection, Altheo Hanlan says, "No indeed."

So first, Spitz has to undermine this. To prove even at 19, Patricia was an ideal stewardess candidate.

You had to take the stand, right? Yes, that's great. How did it feel to be there on the stand with everybody looking at you? I was there for a purpose and a purpose was to prove that the airlines were racist. And with that attitude, I felt that I was very strong. Yeah, but you were, I mean, you were 22 years old. You didn't feel intimidated or it wasn't an easy task.

But I had to put aside all those issues because my main task was to show that not only was I capable of the job, but that other black women and men were also capable of the job. You couldn't just be yourself. You had to be a representative. Yeah, I couldn't stand up there with tears and lies and be scared. A lot of pressure. It was a lot of pressure. After the break, Patricia takes the stand.

Hi, I'm now McShane Wolfhardt, host of the Girl Friends Flight or Fight. You can access seasons 1 through 5 of the Girl Friends and each episode of the Girl Friends flight or fight 100% ad free and one week early through the iHeart True Crime Plus subscription exclusively on Apple Podcasts. You'll also get access to chart topping shows like the trail, paper ghosts, the godmother, and more. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe. My name is Josie Duffy Rice. I'm a journalist who covers the criminal legal system.

In over my career, I've heard account after account of prosecutorial misconduct, story after story of injustice.

But I've never heard a story quite like this.

Before I kept reading this stuff, I thought, man, there's more red flags that just kept coming up over and over. Well, hypnotize him to strengthen that memory, so he went into a good France.

Listen to examine the backfire effect on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey there, everybody. Amy Roboc and TJ Holmes here from the Amy and TJ podcast. Yes, we cover the biggest news stories of the day every day. But we also love diving into relationships and the conversations everyone seems to be having around them. Yes, sometimes the biggest news stories of the day are about relationships. Not secretly, but still openly rooting for JLo and Ben.

Yes, but whether it's the latest with JLo and Ben or Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey's in day and Tom Holland or you know what, even those love island couples after the villa. We are here to discuss all of life's relationship questions.

Always a plenty and so many new relationship titles. We have names and phrases for different types of relationships these days.

Yeah, so I'll stay away from the trends. I'm not exactly dating these days, but listen to us on Amy and TJ on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hope you join us. I'll see you there, friend. Challenge the story we're fed and pursue justice for victims and their families. Please join us at crime stories with Nancy Grace on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts. Hope you join us. I'll see you there, friend.

“What would change if you stopped letting money stress run your life, sis?”

I'm Mandy money host of Brown Ambition the podcast. And right now, I'm taking you through my six part money reboot series. This is your chance to hit reset. Break the debt cycle. Get honest about where your money's going. Build a savings plan that actually sticks and start making financial choices that support the life you want. Not just the bills you have, because wealth building is not about being perfect. It's about having a plan, knowing your numbers, and making your next move with confidence with a community that cares like we do on Brown Ambition.

Each episode gives you practical steps, real talk, and the motivation to stop putting your financial goals on hold. So if you've been saying, I'll give serious about money next month. This is your sign. Start now. Listen to Brown Ambition. That's Brown Ambition and begin your money reboot today. Listen to Brown Ambition on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. An impeccably presentable baby-faced Patricia Banks Edmiston stands proudly facing the room.

Her anxiety coiled millimeters below the surface. She's about to testify in a case where she's accusing one of the biggest airlines in the country. Capital of racial discrimination because they wouldn't hire her or any other black woman as a stewardess.

“I think that we're going to do our little role play now if you're up for this. I actually managed to find the transcript of Patricia's testimony.”

And I got Patricia a copy to transport her back to that moment. I will read out your lawyer's lines. I'm reading her lawyer Henry Spitz's part. Patricia plays herself. Okay. Do you have any special musical talent?

Yes, I do. I play the island. For how long have you played the violin? Four about ten years. And do you have any hobbies? Yes, I'm life sports. I so make my own clothes. I also am an artist and I play basketball. Her lawyer is side-eyeing the commissioners.

See, look how cultured and well-rounded Patricia is.

She speaks a bit of French and Spanish too. She's basically a Renaissance woman.

Not some naive young girl who couldn't handle interacting with passengers.

“And don't forget, she meets one of the key stewardess requirements. She's attractive.”

Can you tell us how you looked? Oh, I don't want my ego to get involved on this. Oh, no, this is an ego-free zone. Just give it to us, and go for it. Oh, that was a good looking black woman now. What can I say? You know, physically I was nicely built.

I had a nice face. I had nice long hair.

Next, spit sets out to prove in a court of law that Patricia is good looking.

Here's the transcript of that part. What is your height and weight?

“I'm five feet six inches and a hundred and twenty pounds.”

What are your overall dimensions? 33, 22, 36. Now, for the record, does that mean bust 33? Waste 22, hips 36? Yes, it does.

And what about your calves and ankles? My calves are 30 and a half inches, ankles are eight inches. Thank you for that. I find this amazing.

I don't think I've ever measured my ankles.

I'm laughing at this, but I'm sure I had to do this with some reason or the other. But also, just having to be up there on this stand, and that being asked to questions about the different measurements of parts of your body. It's kind of humiliating. Well, that's what they did.

Yep. Apparently, in American Airlines Supervisor Manual, described the perfect figure as the bust and hit measurement of the same dimension and a waist 10 inches less, so you had nearly the perfect figure according to American Airlines. Oh, wow.

Thank you. It's not American Airlines who's being accused of racial discrimination. It's capital airlines. But these beauty standards are industry-wide. Spits feels he's illustrated that Patricia is in above average woman,

all the way down to her ankles. He realizes that he's having to subvert many mainstream ideas in the 1950s about beauty. The criteria for good looks in those days were extremely strict,

and the women who met them almost always white.

Did you tell the story of how you had been told by a student that the companies weren't hiring black women? Of course, of course, that was part of my testimony. And how did the airline respond to that? Well, I'm sure they didn't respond. They responded not openly and call it,

but I'm sure they were upset by that statement. Patricia steps down from the stand. The instructor who had told her that the airlines didn't hire black stewardesses, well, she had apparently left the school due to illness, and conveniently for her and the airline could not be found for the hearing.

But someone else testifies on this subject. She stewardess Joy Gettys. She's the one who had interviewed Patricia for capital. She was a white woman, very thin, attractive. In her examination, Joy Gettys tells the lawyer and respects that she has no idea about any airline policy that denies black women the opportunity to be stewardesses.

The realistic feeling I had was it was impossible to tell the truth. And so I understood clearly why she could not say that in an open court.

“Look at that time, would it have done to her if she admitted it?”

I knew she was lying, but I could also understand the position that she had. This is Patricia's opinion, not a proven fact, but Spitz is kind of stumped. He thinks there must be a way to prove racial bias in the appearance standards. Because when stewardesses are interviewing candidates, they are required to evaluate their complexion. So, he asks chief stewardess Gettys.

And sometimes, you go into whether her complexion is fair or dark? Joy Gettys replies. Not that it is fair or dark, but whether she has marks on her skin, complexion problems. That is important. Joy Gettys insists this has to do with acne and blemishes.

Spitz pushes further. You do observe whether a person has a fair complexion or a dark complexion. Before Joy has a chance to reply, Spitz asks, "If you looked at me, what would you call me as far as complexion is concerned?" She says, "I guess you are rather light." With that one line, Spitz thinks he has a slam dunk.

Spitz launches into his argument. Look, skin color is part of the complexion evaluation. Was Patricia educated? Yes. Did she have near-perfect measurements?

Yes.

“Was the only hiring criteria that she couldn't meet complexion according to Spitz?”

Yes. With that, the hearing concludes.

I thought that the case went well, but you still don't know.

Patricia goes home and waits. I think a lot of anxiety was there.

“I maintained to the best of my ability without going crazy with this.”

Every day, she checks her mail for any updates. Patricia was no stranger to receiving letters. They were, after all, the WhatsApp of the 1950s. I can't think of how many letters I would be getting.

I mean, I have friends that lived in other countries that would write letters.

But the volume of letters in Patricia's mailbox went into overdrive after the news of her case broke. One article read, "In a 58-point complaint, pretty Miss Patricia Banks of 106-12, of Pine Grove Street Jamaica Queens has charged capital airlines with refusal to hire her because of her color." They generously note Patricia's good looks and provide her home address for anyone who wanted to send correspondence. Patricia got a bunch of fan mail, but then one day she opens a letter with a different kind of content.

During that time, I received threatening letters. I had to get police protection. That was threatened to be raped. That was scary.

Because then you begin to look at people. Is this the person that's going to do it? Is this the person that sent the letter?

You don't know who's sending these letters. And so you become sort of aware of everybody around you. You're like, you know, my job? Is it somebody on my job sending me these letters? You just don't know. So you become kind of, where are your people? The police department had to know my schedules and they made sure that I got home safe.

“And the only thing I remember, they told me, if he approaches you, don't fight him. Don't fight back.”

Really? And I'm like, oh my god, oh my god, you know. But by the same token, you can't let yourself fall into this deep depression behind the insanity out here. If these years have been done though, I couldn't back out, so I had to stay strong. The weeks dragged on, 1959 turned into 1960. In the meantime, Patricia carried on life studying as a psychology major.

Then one cold February evening, Patricia was returning home from college. And I had a little store on Parsons Boulevard that I would stop in and wait for the bus. And this particular night I was coming in. The store owner started yelling, look at the paper.

“I think it was the New York Times evening or the evening post, and it was in the newspaper.”

And he said, Pat, you won. They said to me, you did it. You did it. Oh, he was all excited. And then he got me excited. I was like, he was holding my hands and we were just jumping together. And of course, then the bus came, I had to get home. And I walked in the door and my mom and my sisters were all jumping up and down in the house.

And so it was quite a night. The state commission against discrimination in New York ordered capital airlines to hire Patricia. And to season to cysts from barring anyone, quote, from employment because of their color. It was great. It was great. So the president of capital airlines did call me later that week and welcome me to capital airlines.

Really? Yes. It was a surprise. Under the circumstances, I felt grateful because I felt what him welcomed me. That I wouldn't go through some of the turmoil that existed. It made me feel welcomed. Patricia was ready for her anxiety to dissolve into secure tranquility as she engaged in adventures of the sky. But unfortunately, there was more turmoil to come.

Hi, I'm Nalmick Shane Wolfhart, host of The Girl Friends Flight or Fight.

Exclusively on Apple Podcasts. You also get access to chart topping shows like the trail, paper ghosts, the godmother and more.

“Head to Apple Podcasts search for iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe.”

My name is Josie Duffy Rice. I'm a journalist who covers the criminal legal system. In over my career, I've heard a count after a count of prosecutorial misconduct story after story of injustice.

But I've never heard a story quite like this.

The more I kept reading this stuff, I thought, man, there's more red flags that just kept coming up over and over. Well, hypnotize him to strengthen that memory. So, he went into a good France. I really didn't believe any of it was real and I was like, well, they're going to figure out this is not me. They're going to do their police job.

Listen to examine the backfire effect on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, everybody. Amy Robock and TJ Holmes here from the Amy and TJ podcast. A lot of times, the story of the day is what we're all talking about. And yes, sometimes it's love island, and sometimes it's Serena Robes. Coming back to the U.S. Open, sometimes it's obsession.

Odyssey and Spider-Man making box office history.

Oh, yeah. House of the Dragon finale, we were there for it. And yes, whether or not Bryce is finally going to ask Trinity to be his girlfriend, we want to know.

Yes, these things matter. Of course, we're not suggesting that the love island reunion, which is not a clock used to know in Monday, August 31st, is as important as the war in Iran. But hopefully, Rose, people get our point. Join us every day on the Amy and TJ podcast where we're talking about what you're talking about. Listen to Amy and TJ on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

“Every case has a story. Every victim has a voice, but will it be heard?”

I mean, see Grace on Crime Stories, we go beyond headlines to examine evidence. Challenge the story we're fed and pursue justice for victims and their families. Please join us at Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts. Hope you join us. I'll see you there, friend. What would change if you stopped letting money stress run your life, sis?

I'm Mandy Money, host of Brown Ambition, the podcast. And right now, I'm taking you through my six part money reboot series. This is your chance to hit reset. Break the debt cycle, get honest about where your money's going. Build a savings plan that actually sticks and start making financial choices that support the life you want. Not just the bills you have, because wealth building is not about being perfect.

It's about having a plan, knowing your numbers, and making your next move with confidence with the community that cares like we do on Brown Ambition. Each episode gives you practical steps, real talk, and the motivation to stop putting your financial goals on hold. So if you've been saying, I'll give serious about money next month. This is your sign, start now.

Listen to Brown Ambition, that's Brown Ambition, and begin your money reboot today. Listen to Brown Ambition on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. [Music]

Patricia Banks, Edmiston, feels her pride swell, as she pops each gold button on her new stewardess uniform into place for the very first time.

It's May 1960. Patricia has been waiting for this day for years. She's starting work as a stewardess for capital airlines. Her inaugural trip will take her from Detroit to the south with a layover. I had a three-day trip to Alcoa, Tennessee, so I stayed in this motel for three days,

“and I remember one of the Mays walking in, and she said to me, "This must be your first time here."”

And I'm not paying any attention now, I'm getting comfortable, and she kept saying, "This must be your first time here." And I said, "Yes, ma'am, it is. I was very polite. She was polite." When I returned to my home base in Detroit, Michigan, I had caused the right in Alcoa, Tennessee.

Word gets out, the Patricia had stayed in so-called "white accommodation."

What she remembers next is hard to listen to, and it includes racist language. There was a riot. The airline management's called me and told me that in the back of my logbook, there were places I should stay when I flew south. So from there on in, whenever I flew south, which was most of my trips, security would meet me at the airport and take me to black motels. And the rest of the crew went to the white motel.

Yes, you could not react the things that you may have ordinarily reacted to. I had one flight, it was on a DC-3, which was a very bumpy flight, and this man asked me if I would hold this hand. He was scared to death. He said, "It didn't like DC-3, they were too bumpy." So I said, "Okay, sir, when I finished, I'll be glad to sit with you." So he held my hand and he said to me, "Have you ever been to Montana?"

And I said, "No, sir." He said, "There's so much green grass, beautiful trees, no niggas and no winos." Oh boy, it was crazy.

“What happened when he said that? How did you feel? How did your body react?”

Unbelievable. I held his hand and all I could do is go home and have a drink of wine. I couldn't say anything because remember my behavior was being observed. I had to be this almost perfect human being. My purpose was to assure the airlines that a black woman could handle this job. So therefore I did not respond negatively to any situations that I was confronted with.

Did you feel like you ever had any support from white sturdesses or any support from the sturdist unions? There were a few people that I was friendly with when I flew with them with e-together and things of that nature. So that wasn't too bad. Pat Gibbs, the sturdist for American Airlines and Union Representative. Well, she admits that racial equality wasn't a huge item on the Union agenda in the 60s and 70s.

It basically didn't come up that much because you didn't have people of color that many.

When they did hire some people of color, they weren't all in the same base. They were scattered throughout the system. So rarely would you see a black person on your flight. If you hardly ever saw them, you hardly ever had grievances for them. Or any other reason to protest race.

“But in retrospect, when you learned about how difficult it was for people of color to be hired, do you feel like maybe it's something that you should have paid more attention to?”

Or there's something that you maybe could have done back then? Well, I think yes, I think we could have been more supportive of women going to a lot of the issues. For Patricia's win, the hiring of sturdist's of color was slow and sporadic.

American Airlines hired its first black sturdist, Joan Dorsey in 1963.

Then there was Diane Hunter, 1965 at Continental Airlines. And in 1967, Louise Fipps took to the skies with United. Over a decade after Patricia's historic case, in 1971, Casey Grant joined their ranks. I was among the first African American flight attendant hired by Delta Airlines. Aviation is basically in Casey's blood. She was born on the military air base where her dad worked.

Once she was selected to be a sturdist, well, it felt like that path was almost inevitable. When Casey went into training, there were three other black women in her class.

“The class started off with 32, I believe it was.”

And because of the standards, if you didn't maintain that be average, or a lot of girls got homesick and they wanted to go home to Billy Bob. And so they quit, this wonderful job to go home.

So they would quit.

That wasn't one of my dreams at all.

Forget Billy Bob or Billy Tom or anything. I was seeing the world and nobody was going to stop me.

“So we ended up, I believe we had like 24 in our class.”

And all four of the black girls did graduate. Then Casey travels to her new base, Miami. I'm excited. I have a ticket. I have my name on a ticket. And I'm going to the airport. Oh, my goodness. It was a evening flight. So the plane they turned the lights down.

And it was just as beautiful yellow hue throughout the whole plane. And people were sitting up straight and looking all beautiful. And the sturdist was gorgeous. And I'm inhaling all of this energy in the excitement.

And I'm like, I can't believe it. I'm floating. I'm floating on cloud night.

I can't believe I have been chosen to be a sturdist. But it wouldn't take long for that cloud to evaporate. And Casey would bump right back down to earth. It began when Casey and another black sturdist were house hunting.

“Delta puts you up in a hotel for so many weeks and they expect you”

at the end of that time period to have secure a place to live. And then the search is on to try to find an apartment. My roommate and I would make, you know, call. They would say, yes, we have an apartment open. We would like to come see it once we got there.

All of a sudden it was occupied. We're sorry we made a mistake. We don't have any. So we went through that several times. Then the light bulb goes off.

And when you realize at that point, you know, it's because you're black. It's very disheartening. It's very heartbreaking. It's embarrassing.

It's degrading. All of those different things. But we are four to two kicks in when that happens. And you're not going to allow any of that to discourage you. We knew we were going to get an apartment eventually.

But you just rocked and roll with that in the beginning of other experiences like that. As her career went on, Casey began bracing herself for racism. She even started taking extra precautions when she had layovers. I would get in the room. I would leave the door open to inspect it.

Make sure there was no one under the bed, no one in the shower curtain. Delta fluid, a lot of the southern routes. And then I would barricade myself in the room. So I'd put the chair up against the door and I put my suitcase.

So I always wanted to have some sense of resistance.

If the club's clan or anybody was going to try to get me in the middle of the night. At least I'd have a fighting chance to defend myself before them. But that was part of the ritual is what I did. I was the little black, all alone stored as back then. Yes, you were going into where they were having race riots in the town.

Now, did it happen all the time? No, but did it happen? Yes. A crucial coping strategy for Casey was finding solidarity with other black sturdises. And you would see someone else and we would exchange stories. It was like I little five second therapy with each other's like,

Yeah, do you believe this happened to me? Yes, that happened to me too. We don't go to eat there because they won't serve you. And so we exchange the viable skills. And that is how we coped. And that is how we made it. After Casey retired in 2005, she actually went on to become a historian of black aviation and sturdises in particular.

She wrote a book called Stars in the Sky. Part of Casey's research, interviewing Patricia Banks Edmiston. Her story is eye-opening and heart-breaking. But she wasn't going to take no for an answer. That was not acceptable.

“Pat, what do you think was the most important thing about your case?”

Like the biggest impact that black women who wanted these kind of jobs could apply for these jobs. And I think it also sets examples. For young people that came behind us, that if there is something that you want, you can get it. You can get it. In the end, Patricia Banks Edmiston only worked as a sturdist for one year.

She remembers her last day. I mean, there was no celebration to anything. It was very quietly done. A lot of the supervisors thanked me for being on Capitol.

Because I put off my marriage for a year. I just figured after one year

that I hopefully presented myself well enough to hire other black women in the field.

“Why couldn't you continue working as a sturdist after you got married?”

Because that was the law you could not be married. Yes, by 1961, you could be a black woman and a sturdist.

But you know what you couldn't be a married woman and a sturdist.

Coming up on the next installment of The Girl Friends, Flight or Fight, a sturdist hides her husband. I didn't wear a wedding ring. I just didn't wear one. I wanted to keep my job. I did not want to get fired, and I knew that would happen.

“Something like 8 to 10% of the flight attendance were secretly married.”

Not giving somebody the right to be married. That's just wrong.

The Girl Friends, Flight or Fight, is produced by novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more for novel, visit novel.audio. This podcast is hosted by me. Now McShane will part. The senior producer and writer is Sasuke Collette. Our editor is Joe Meek. The assistant producer is Bella Seltiel. Production management from Shari Houston and Joe Savage.

“Fact checking by Fendell Fulton. Sound design mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson.”

Original music by Shulto. The Girl Friends theme was composed by Nicholas Alexander, with vocals by Gina Walters. Music supervision from Nicholas Alexander and Sasuke Collette. The series artwork was designed by Christina Leam Cool. novel's director of development is Selena Mehta. Willard Foxton is our creative director of development.

Max O'Brien and Craig Stracken are executive producers for novel. Katrina Norvel and Nikki E. Torre are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and the marketing lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman, Will Pearson, and to author Casey Grant for her support. Her book on the history of black aviation and flight attendance is called Stars in the Sky. Music

Hi, I'm now McShane Wolfhart, host of The Girl Friends Flight or Fight. You can access seasons 1 through 5 of The Girl Friends and each episode of The Girl Friends flight or fight 100% ad free and one week early through the iHeart True Crime Plus subscription. Exclusively Unapple Podcasts. You also get access to chart topping shows like betrayal, paper ghosts, the godmother, and more. Head to Apple Podcasts search for iHeart True Crime Plus and subscribe.

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