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Back in 1964, during the height of the civil rights movement, Black men didn’t fly commercial jets. More than 60 years later, as the fight against racism and social injustice continues to be fought each day, National Geographic introduces Segregated Skies: David Harris’s Trailblazing Journey to Rise Above Racial Barriers, the inspiring and true story of David Harris, the first Black man to fly for a commercial airline, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former White House political correspondent Michael H. Cottman.



During a time of massive protests — as people struggled to end racial segregation and give Black people equal rights — David Harris was about to change the future of Black aviators across the globe. After years of flying B-52 bombers in the United States Air Force, Harris made the bold decision to go against a long-standing legacy of racist practices and policy and apply to be a pilot for commercial airliners. Such a career had been barred to all other African Americans before him, even the famed Tuskegee Airmen. This gripping narrative follows Harris’s difficult path to become the first African American commercial airline pilot in the United States.