Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, an international singing sensation, faced discrimination when on tour. En route to a concert from Honolulu to Australia, she was denied the right to board a Pan American flight because she was African American. She filed a complaint, along with John Lewis, Georgiana Henry, and Norman Granz, against Pan American World Airways, Inc.
The complaint asked a judgment for money damages. The district judge dismissed the complaint, but the plaintiffs – Fitzgerald, Lewis, Henry, and Granz – appealed. This judgement in the case shows that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed that decision, ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.
