What it was like traveling the world as one of the first Black Pan Am flight attendants

(CNN) — In the summer of 1969, Sheila Nutt was one of just two Black women in a crowded Philadelphia hotel, waiting to interview for a coveted role as a flight attendant for Pan American World Airways.

Nutt was a 20-year-old college student living in Philadelphia. A couple of years previously, she was first runner-up in the Philadelphia division of the Miss America pageant.

“I kind of felt like a trailblazer.”

In between rounds, Nutt chatted with the other pageant contestants about her life goals, voicing her dreams of becoming a model or an actress. One of the women mentioned the airlines were looking for flight attendants — the advent of the jet engine had opened up international travel and airlines were booming.

Nutt was intrigued by the idea of working as a flight attendant. It was a ticket out of Philadelphia and to her future.

“There was a possibility that if I became a stewardess, I could be discovered on an airplane,” says Nutt.

After the pageant ended, Nutt recalls eagerly flipping through the local Sunday newspaper with her best friend Sandy. They turned to the job listing page and spotted an ad posted by Pan Am.

The role wasn’t open to everyone. Applicants had to have a college education, speak a second language and be a certain height and weight, and eye glasses were banned. But the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade discrimination against applicants based on race, so applicants from all backgrounds were encouraged. The first wave of Black flight attendants had started flying a few years previously, and Nutt and Sandy were keen to join them.

As she sat waiting to be interviewed, Nutt flicked through the Pan Am brochures laid out on the coffee table in front of her. Bright images of Rome, Paris, Istanbul and Buenos Aires were splashed across the pages.

“I’d only read about those places in history books,” says Nutt.

The thought of visiting these destinations was thrilling.

“Oh my gosh, I really want this job,” Nutt recalls thinking.

No longer did Nutt see working as a flight attendant as a means to fulfill a larger dream of acting or modeling — flying sounded like a dream job in itself.

“Traditionally, African Americans were not traveling the world, we were going from Philadelphia to Atlanta,” she says. “So the whole idea of seeing the world was exciting for…