Ruth Carol Taylor (born December 27, 1931) is the first African-American flight attendant in the United States.[1] Her first flight was aboard a Mohawk Airlines flight from Ithaca to New York City in 1958.[2]
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, into a family of Black, White, and Cherokee heritage, 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.[3]
Taylor attended Elmira College and graduated as a registered nurse from the Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City.[4][5][6]
Hired in December 1957,[6] 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.[7] She was let go within six months as a result of Mohawk's then-common marriage ban.[8]
Taylor was later significantly involved in covering the 1963 March on Washington and as an activist for consumer affairs and women's rights.[5] She wrote The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America (1985), whose purpose is to "save lives - the lives of Black African Males who are on the Endangered list"[9] 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.[5]