Banks, Patricia Noisette

One of the first black flight attendants, Patricia Banks, a native New Yorker, fought discrimination by filing a lawsuit against Capital Airlines through the New York State Commission Against Discrimination. A graduate of the Grace Downs Air Career School, Banks applied to several airlines companies for a stewardess position, but was repeatedly denied employment. In 1957 she filed a suit against Capital Airlines (which later merged in 1961 with United Airlines), and in 1960 the Commission ruled in her favor and ordered the company to hire her. She has been acknowledged by the Black Flight Attendants of America, Inc. and was featured in an WNBC News segment for being a pioneer in her field.

From the guide to the Patricia Banks collection, 1957-1999, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.)