Continental Airlines (Houston) will suspend operations at its New York hub at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) today (February 10), due to the severe winter weather conditions forecast for the area.

Operations at other airlines and airports throughout the Northeast and Midwest U.S. will also be affected by severe weather, forcing some delays and cancellations.

In other news, Continental named one of its aircraft (Boeing 737-824 N77518, msn 31605) in honor of its late Captain Marlon Green, who won a landmark legal battle to become the first African American pilot hired by a major U.S. passenger airline, in a special ceremony at Bush Intercontinental Airport yesterday.

Green resigned from the U.S. Air Force in 1957 after nine years and more than 3,000 hours of flying multi-engine aircraft to apply for a job with a commercial airline.  He was rejected by every airline at which he applied, including Continental, where he was granted a flight test and interview only after he declined to note his race on his application.  Continental’s refusal to hire him while hiring other less qualified applicants became the basis of his six-year legal challenge that culminated with a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1963, which ensured no applicant for a pilot’s position would be denied a job on the basis of race.  Green finally began flying for Continental in 1965 and he remained with the company for 14 years until his retirement.  He died in 2009 at the age of 80.