Focus on This Day in Black History Celebrates a Flight Attendant, a Brave African Company, and a National Hero

On this day in Black History, February 11, groundbreaking achievements were made in the air and on land. After the darkest of nights, light trickles in taking us further into a new dawn. Black History makers, Ruth Carol Taylor, the New Amsterdam Company, and Nelson Mandela are heralded on this day. Each of these remarkable individuals stood up to the evil of injustice and did not give up. As symbols of Black excellence, they pressed forward, becoming an airline attendant, landowners, and the president of South Africa.

Ruth Carol Taylor

On February 11, 1958, Ruth Carter Taylor joined Mohawk Airlines as the first African American flight attendant in United States history. Although mainly recognized for her service in the airline industry, Taylor was an activist who fought for the rights of women and minorities. Her family moved to upstate New York from Boston, Massachusetts, where she was born. After college, Taylor graduated from the Bellevue School of Nursing. After several years as a nurse, she wanted to become a stewardess, as flight attendants were then called.

Taylor applied first to Trans World Airlines (TWA), but was rejected and filed a discrimination complaint. At the time, Mohawk Airlines expressed interest in hiring minority flight attendants, so she applied and was accepted. Cementing her place in Black History, Taylor broke the color barrier as a flight attendant en route from Ithaca to New York City. Six months later, she resigned after becoming engaged, as flight attendants had to remain single. Throughout Taylor’s lifetime, she remained an activist and Black history maker.

The New Amsterdam Company

February 11, 1644, was a day of protest for enslaved Africans who won their freedom and established the first free African communities. The Dutch West India Company formerly owned a company of slaves and brought them to the colony of New Amsterdam, present-day New York. These Black History figures were among the first Africans to arrive in New Amsterdam in 1926 as slaves.

After two years of the colony’s founding, several petitioned for their freedom and won. Granted land parcels by the Council of New Amsterdam, they had to give a portion of their farming proceeds to the company. Among those granted land were Manuel de Gerrit due Rues, who survived two hanging attempts, Simon Congo, and Manuel Groot. 

Nelson Mandela

A turning point in South Africa’s history was on February 11, 1990, when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison as a free man. Imprisoned for twenty-seven years by the apartheid government, his release signaled victory from injustice. In 1962, Nelson was arrested and condemned to life in prison. However, on the day of his release, crowds gathered in excitement to watch this pivotal moment in history when Nelson would emerge from prison a free man.

Foreign dignitaries flew in, anticipating Mandela’s release from Victor Verster Prison. Photographers from around the world were lined up outside the prison to capture Mandela after his decades-long confinement. As Nelson emerges from Verster Prison, walking beside his wife, Winnie, in a suit and tie, the crowd erupts as they both hold up their fists in freedom and victory.

A parade was held in Cape Town to celebrate his release, and he addressed the crowds outside his home in Soweto. This was a landmark event in Black History, and the rejoicing throughout the crowd signified that a new era had begun. Mandela served as South Africa’s first black president from 1994 to 1999.

February is Black History Month

Today, February 11, we celebrate the groundbreaking achievements of these phenomenal individuals, who symbolize freedom. As an activist, Ruth Carol Taylor was more interested in breaking the color barrier than becoming a flight attendant, later telling an interviewer she didn’t plan to serve extensively.

The New Amsterdam Company did not let its enslaved status deny them the right to petition for their freedom. And even though he’d been incarcerated for twenty-seven years to silence his voice, Nelson Mandela trusted God for his release, then became his nation’s leader. We honor these men and women today in Black History for their incredible and outstanding contributions.