Capt. John Bailey, F/O Jon Graham, F/O Doug Hill, Capt. Brian Todd, F/O Dana Nelson, F/O Marx Davis, ca. 2002
The Delta Flight Museum is excited to announce the our next temporary exhibition, "The Sky is Not the Limit: Breaking the Color Barrier", will open on November 2, 2017. By telling the story of four of Delta's African American pilots, this exhibition will explore the challenges of being a pilot of color.
From the exhibition text:
Today, pilots come from many different backgrounds, but through most of the 20th century white males dominated the profession almost to the complete exclusion of pilots of color. There were, however, incredible exceptions. In aviation’s fledgling days, barnstormer Bessie Coleman, of African and Native American descent, challenged the idea of who could or should be a pilot. For Coleman and those pilots of color who followed her, becoming a pilot involved an additional challenge beyond the hard work needed to learn how to fly: it required battling the forces of prejudice at every step.
In 1968, when Delta Air Lines hired Sam Graddy, he became the first African American pilot for the airline. He received this congratulatory letter from his college Alma mater, which celebrated not only his personal accomplishment, but how his achievement served as an inspiration for "minority youth the world over"
The exhibition will be on display through the end of March 2018.