The Pan Am Museum Foundation is excited to present Civil Rights, Race & Gender Equity: Pan Am Diversity in Flight, a special event on June 27th at 1pm in partnership and panel discussion with the Pan Am Black Birds.

“The Pan Am Black Birds” are the African-American flight attendants whose acclaimed beauty and electric personalities set the standard for career women in the 60’s and 70’s. These exuberant storytellers will shed fresh light on many aspects of their real-life and undoubtedly larger-than-life experiences.

In 1969, Pan Am hired its first group of African American stewardesses, a major step in diversifying Pan Am and the airline industry at large.

As former Pan Am stewardess Dr. Sheila Nutt recalls: “In a broader historical context, I was hired as a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that mandated equal rights for African Americans and women. By law Pan American World Airways had to increase the number of African American stewardesses.” This program was funded in part by Humanities New York with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.