Book cover of Jim Crow Terminals: The Desegregation of American Airports

Book description

Historical accounts of racial discrimination in transportation have focused until now on trains, buses, and streetcars and their respective depots, terminals, stops, and other public accommodations. It is essential to add airplanes and airports to this narrative, says Anke Ortlepp. Air travel stands at the center of the twentieth century's…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Jim Crow Terminals as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Activism against racial discrimination in transportation was a key component of the African American Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Most stories about this activism focus on buses, street cars, trains, and the terminals and depots that served them.

This book valuably showed us, when it was published, how activism around airplanes and airports was an important part of this story. Doing so helped me better understand the role of racial justice struggles in the broader story of air travel’s democratization during the second half of the twentieth century.

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