# Were United States airlines ever officially segregated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534 "2011-01-05T20:58:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/1 "2011-01-05T20:58:11Z")
Not US Air, but any American carriers. There was segregation on the buses and trains - were there any official corporate policies regarding either refusing to allow black people onto 'planes, or where they could sit if they were allowed on? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/2 "2011-01-05T21:37:10Z")
Considering that prior to 70’s airline fairs were primarily limited to wealthy people. If you could afford a ticket, you could fly. I am not aware of any segregation by any US air carrier. In the 50’s and 60’s there were many black entertainers that traveled on airlines. ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/3 "2011-01-05T22:56:46Z")
[America by Air](http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal102/americabyair/heyday/heyday13.cfm) says > [@](#): > > African Americans could choose to fly, but few did. It then goes on to offer a couple of paragraphs of elaboration. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/4 "2011-01-05T23:40:39Z")
I hadn’t thought about the airports as well. Obviously with the cost it wasn’t going to be a big thing, but there are stories of entertainers/athletes suffering from segregation with the hotels etc. So I am just intrigued to see if any airline had an official policy it either would not fly blacks, or required certain seating. Thanks for the link - that is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/5 "2011-01-06T00:02:38Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > In the 50’s and 60’s there were many black entertainers that traveled on airlines. B.B. King buys a seat for [Lucille.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_%28guitar%29) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/6 "2011-01-06T01:29:55Z")
I don’t think they could have been, legally. By their very nature they deal in interstate commerce, making them subject to Federal law as opposed to exclusively state law. Board (and bored) lawyers…would _Brown v Board of Education(1954)_ have applied? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/7 "2011-01-06T04:10:47Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I don’t think they could have been, legally. By their very nature they deal in interstate commerce, making them subject to Federal law as opposed to exclusively state law. Railroads deal in interstate commerce, too, but the Supreme Court upheld state-mandated segregation in railroad cars even on journeys that crossed state lines. The dodge was that the state could only regulate that portion of the journey within its borders. So for example, on a train running from Memphis to New Orleans, Mississippi could mandate segregation on that portion of the trip which ran through Mississippi. Of course, unless the railroad wanted to rearrange passengers at the state line, this meant that they had to provide a “Jim Crow car” for the entire journey. You can read this remarkable and tortured decision [here](http://supreme.justia.com/us/133/587/case.html). By analogy, a Southern state probably _could_ have mandated back-of-the-plane seating while planes were taking off or landing within its borders. I’m not aware that any state ever attempted to do so. As noted, relatively small numbers of people flew at all before the 1950’s, and relatively few of those were Southern African Americans. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/8 "2011-01-06T04:24:19Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > As noted, relatively small numbers of people flew at all before the 1950’s, and relatively few of those were Southern African Americans. Thomas Shipp was hanged in Indiana, not the South. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/9 "2011-01-06T17:54:32Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > By analogy, a Southern state probably _could_ have mandated back-of-the-plane seating while planes were taking off or landing within its borders. I’m not aware that any state ever attempted to do so. As noted, relatively small numbers of people flew at all before the 1950’s, and relatively few of those were Southern African Americans. I am going to admit to shameful ignorance for one moment here - were the seating restrictions legally required under state law, or were they picked by the transportation companies and merely permitted under state law? Obviously there were miscegenation laws, but were there seating laws? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/10 "2011-01-06T17:56:25Z")
> [@villa](#): > > I am going to admit to shameful ignorance for one moment here - were the seating restrictions legally required under state law, or were they picked by the transportation companies and merely permitted under state law? Obviously there were miscegenation laws, but were there seating laws? No seating laws. Just rules imposed by the various transportation companies, which were ultimately determined to be illegal. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/11 "2011-01-06T18:00:54Z")
That’s what I would have thought. I’d be intrigued to see if any southern based airline (when was Delta formed?) ever did this. It probably isn’t something they are going to brag about on their corporate web page, though. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-united-states-airlines-ever-officially-segregated/566534/12 "2011-01-06T20:18:37Z")
> [@Wilbo523](#): > > No seating laws. Just rules imposed by the various transportation companies, which were ultimately determined to be illegal. Absolutely, categorically incorrect. Segregation in public transportation was mandated by Southern state and local laws. Rosa Parks was arrested for violating Alabama law, not merely for failing to comply with bus company policies. In the case of [Browder v. Gayle](http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_browder_v_gayle/), which grew out of the Montgomery bus boycott, the laws were found to be unconstitutional. As I took pains to point out above, the earliest Jim Crow public transportation laws concerned railroads, and the railroads were so peeved when the laws were imposed that _they themselves sued to have the law declared unconstitutional_. Unfortunately, they lost.