Continental Airlines Names Boeing 737 After Captain Marlon Green

On February 10, in a ceremony in Houston  Continental Airlines named one of its Boeing 737s in honour of its late Captain Marlon Green, who won a landmark legal battle to become the first African American pilot hired by a major US passenger airline.

Captain Green left the United States Air Force after nine years’ service in 1957, having logged 3,071 hours in multi-engine bombers and cargo planes. On leaving the Air Force, Green applied to at least ten U.S. airlines for a pilot’s position. He was turned down by all due to his color.

Finally, Green applied to Denver’s Continental Air Lines, leaving blank the place in the form marked “racial identity” and deliberately failing to send along the two requested photographs. He was summoned for flight tests. He was the most experienced of the five applicants on flight test, but was not offered the job.

Green filed a complaint under a Colorado anti-discrimination law and the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission ruled in his favor. This decision was then challenged by Continental. While the case was in process, Green worked as a pilot ferrying VIPs for the Michigan highway department until he resigned in protest over inadequate bad-weather navigation equipment on state planes. He then went to work cleaning milk cans in a dairy.

The Denver District Court and subsequently the Colorado Supreme Court ruled against Green, ruling that the state had “no business trying to impose its laws on carriers in interstate commerce”. Green took his case to the United States Supreme Court, and in April 1963 SCOTUS unanimously overturned the Colorado decision, ruling: “We hold that the Colorado statute as applied here to prevent discrimination in hiring . . . does not impose a constitutionally prohibited burden upon interstate commerce.”

Capt. Green was a pioneer who was willing to challenge the unacceptable status quo of the time and paved the way for the most qualified applicants to be hired, regardless of the color of their skin,” said Jeff Smisek , Continental’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “His bold actions have helped make Continental what it is today, a company of great diversity.”

Green’s brother, Jim Green, flew from his home near Seattle to attend the ceremony. He said the honor would have pleased his brother, who died in July at age 80. “He’s looking down from heaven and saying well done — a little bit late, but well done,” Jim Green said.

Posted by The Cotillion Online on Feb 16 2010. Filed under Entertainment, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.