World's 1st Black Flight Attendant Léopoldine Doualla-Bell Smith Honored by Black Flight Attendants of America

“I was yelling and screaming and [the other flight attendant] was telling me to calm down,” she recalls, laughing at the memory of the first time she’d experienced soaring amid the clouds in an airplane. “I kept thinking, ‘what if I die?'”

Doualla-Bell Smith had no idea that first flight – as terrifying as it seemed – would mark the beginning of an illustrious aviation industry career that would ultimately span nearly five decades and earn the honorable distinction of being known as one of the world’s first black flight attendants.

In celebration of their 40th anniversary, the Black Flight Attendants of America recently honored Doualla-Bell Smith, 76, now retired in Denver, for her years of service at the Flight Path Museum at the Los Angeles International Airport.

“When I heard of Mrs. Smith’s generous humanitarian efforts and spirit of volunteerism, I knew she had to have been a woman of substance of whom we all should be proud,” explains event chairperson Diane Hunter. “Everyone should know of her ‘journey’ to become the first black flight attendant in the world: on every continent and particularly in this country where we were emerged in a historic struggle for equal civil rights under the laws of the [U.S.] Constitution.”

History buffs may know that Ruth Carol Taylor is on record as the first African-American flight attendant in the United States. Her initial flight was reportedly February 11, 1958 on a Mohawk Airlines flight from Ithaca to New York. Unfortunately her career abruptly ended six months later due to a common practice among airlines of the day of releasing flight attendants who got married or became pregnant.

As a stewardess with Union Aéromaritime de Transport (UAT) Doualla-Bell Smith, who was born in the West African nation of Cameroon, actually took flight for the first time the year before Taylor in 1957.

“When I was young there were only white men and women working on the plane,” she remembers. “I was one of the first blacks to be hired and it was a big deal; everybody in my town was talking about it. It was even in the newspaper.”

Her aviation career took off early on when Doualla-Bell Smith, a princess of the royal Douala family of Cameroon, accepted an after-school job as a ground hostess with UAT (which later merged into the Union de Transports Aériens or UTA), the airline that, along with Air France served, France’s African routes. She stayed on for two years and after graduating from high school in 1956 at the age of 17, Doualla-Bell Smith was recruited and sent to Paris for flight training by Air France.

She joined UAT a year later as an “hôtesse de l’air,” what flight attendants were called then. By 1960, she was recruited by Air Afrique, a Pan-African airline mainly owned by many West African countries created to serve 11 newly independent French-speaking nations.

In fact, her stellar credentials as an African with French aviation experience helped her stand out so much she became the airline’s first official hire (in fact, her employee identification card literally read “no. 001”). It didn’t take long for her to get promoted to Air Afrique’s first cabin chief position.

Although clearly ascending in her career aspirations, the friendly skies weren’t always so friendly to Doualla-Bell Smith.

Many times her brown skin was unfamiliar and unwelcomed by passengers, who shunned her. “They were rude; they would tell me not to touch them or not to touch their things,” recalls Doualla-Bell Smith. “I would just walk away and help other people.”

Doualla-Bell Smith says she usually shook off the discriminatory treatment with a smile and carried on with her other duties. “If I reacted to that racism any other way I would be racist myself,” she says, emphatically. “I did my best not to let it bother me.”

Hunter says Doualla-Bell Smith’s grace under pressure was among the many reasons she was selected as an honoree. “It is interesting that our sister across the sea had experienced the same roadblocks as we, here in America, had during the same parallel of time while seeking employment, particularly in the field of aviation,” says Hunter.

“She is a true pioneer and also a legend. She broke through the barriers and for that we are most grateful.”

During the days of apartheid in South Africa she was not allowed to walk off the plane with her co-workers. Instead of joining the rest of the crew at a local hotel, once she was covered and whisked away to the home of a fellow employee who lived in the country.

On the job she also battled sexism, the unfortunate consequence of the rampant stereotype and expectation that flight attendants – who were paid very little at the time – could easily be coerced into sleeping with crew members and passengers, particularly wealthy businessmen. “You had to be short, thin, attractive and available,” quips LeRoy Smith, Doualla-Bell Smith’s husband of nearly 36 years, a former Peace Corps executive, about the purported employment prerequisites for flight attendants way back when. “Things have changed a lot since then, but that’s how it was.”

Again Doualla-Bell Smith says she took it all in stride, politely brushing off sexual advances that could likely score millions in a sexual harassment lawsuit these days. One time in particular though, she got so fed up that she risked losing her job when she slapped a white male passenger who had boldly chosen to fondle her breasts. “I was worried that I would get fired, but I simply explained the situation to the company and I kept my job,” she remembers.