Marlon Green

Marlon DeWitt Green was born on the sixth of June 1929 at El Dorado, in Union County, Arkansas, to McKinley Green and Lucy Green. In 1936 or 1937 the family moved north to Lansing, Michigan, where the boy grew up far from the Arkansas of his birth. He entered the United States Air Force in 1948, trained as a pilot, and served with distinction, flying the SA-16 Albatross on rescue missions with the 36th Air Rescue Squadron out of Japan before resigning his commission as a captain in 1957.

Seeking to fly as a civilian, Green applied to Continental Air Lines in 1957. Having omitted a photograph, he was called for a flight test and passed it — yet five white applicants with far less experience were hired in his place. Recognizing the discrimination for what it was, Green filed a complaint with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission and began a six-year fight through the courts.

On the twenty-second of April 1963, in Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission v. Continental Airlines, Inc., the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously in his favor and ordered the airline to admit him to its training. Hired in late 1964, Green reported for duty in January 1965 and made his first flight as a co-pilot that March, piloting Vickers Viscounts out of Denver. He rose to captain in 1966 and flew for Continental until his retirement in 1978.

His victory helped shatter the whites-only cockpit and opened the profession to generations of Black aviators who followed. Marlon Green died on the sixth of July 2009 in Denver, Colorado. May the sky he opened for others keep his name aloft.