Most histories about the   Civil Rights Movement focus on marches and sit ins.
But there is a crucial   racial justice battleground    often overlooked,   and it unfolded in the sky.
The South, it was open, clear.
That white people   had this advantage,  Black people had no advantage.
I'm in New York.
It's not as vivid.
And then when the airline   situation occurred, it just opened my eyes totally.
Yes, it exists here.
It exists.
The struggle for equal    opportunity in the airline industry was turbulent.
But, one woman's challenge   opened the doors for change.
The one thing that has to be clear,    discrimination is a very difficult thing to prove.
When Pat Banks graduated   from Grace Downs Air  Career School in 1956,    she expected to be   hired as a flight attendant.
Despite her impeccable credentials, Pat did not receive a single offer.
I was determined that somebody of African  American heritage was  going to get this job.
Pat sued Capital Airlines for  their racially discriminatory    hiring practices.
Finally, in 1960, after nearly four years,    she won her case.
I wouldn't do anything that may have led to a mistake.
I had to be this   perfect human being.
And the only way I could do that was to do my job  and prove that this job could be done and accomplished  by an African American woman.
Pat opened the doors.
But the doors   weren't kicked open;    they were cracked.
The first Black flight attendant    for Delta was hired in '66  and then I was hired in 1971.
Nearly a decade after Pat won her case.
By the start of the 1970s,  there were about 1,000   Black women employed   across all of the airlines.
At the time, this  accounted for only 3%  of the total number of flight    attendants in the country.
When I went in to National   Airlines for the interview,  I never considered my skin tone as a problem.
Just being able to  communicate with individuals,  customer service, that's what   I thought it was all about.
I didn't think of color at all.
Once I completed the training,   I realized that the    company, National    Airlines, did not want me.
When I would see    certain captains,  I knew scheduling was going to pull me off the flight   because they refused to fly with me.
Passengers would not    make eye contact.
If you asked if they wanted something to drink, they  would not talk to you.
But then when the white   stewardess came along, they  would beckon for them to come.
So you understood that.
This is when you talk    to the other stewardesses, and we started comparing notes.
In 1973, Undra Mays joined    the union that represented    flight attendants.
If someone of color  had a problem,    I would be the one there.
I would be the one there   to quote policy and procedure to the company    and tell them what we will    and will not accept or do.
Mays worked as a  flight attendant for 50 years.
Casey Grant worked for   Delta Airlines for 35 years.
I never became  discouraged by racism.
I knew that I could  do the job better than  half of the girls I was flying   with because I tried harder.
I knew the world was not all bad.
I never became discouraged   because no one was going to  take this opportunity from me.
Pat Banks was inducted into the Black Aviation  Hall of Fame in 2010.
I think that most of the heroes in aviation,  the common thread for  all those people that  have opened the doors, was being determined and  never taking no for an answer.
When you want something,    you fight for it.