The Life and Accomplishments of Bessie Coleman. The Black Woman Who Dared To Fly.
As the first African American, and as the first Native American female pilot,
Bessie Coleman was a true trailblazer.
Known for performing flying tricks, Coleman’s nicknames were “Brave Bessie” and “Queen Bess.”
Her mission in life was to inspire women and
people of color to pursue their dreams as she did in her life.
Growing into a young woman in early 20th century America,
Bessie Coleman didn't have many career paths as a woman, as an African American woman or as a
person of Native American descent. So when she fell in love with the idea of flying planes,
she soon found out that America was not the place to start. Instead, she would travel
to Europe where the stigmas of race and sex were not so deeply ingrained in the culture.
Within a year, Bessie will have returned home as the first African American and
the first Native American licensed, female pilot in aviation history.
Bessie's Early Life.
Bessie Coleman was the tenth child born to a rural North Texas family on January 26, 1892.
Her mother, Susan Coleman, was an African American maid, and her father George Coleman,
was a sharecropper of mixed Native American and African American descent.
During her childhood, Bessie worked in the cotton fields along with her entire family
but she didn't let this stop her active mind and her hunger to know the world. During harvest time,
when the schools were closed, Bessie borrowed books from the wagon library and educated herself.
As she grew older, one of her biggest aims was to improve her schooling
and study in a university. To accomplish this, she worked to cover her tuition fee as a laundress.
By the time she was eighteen, Bessie saved enough money to attend what is now Langston
University in Langston, Oklahoma, but she had to drop out of college after only one semester
because she could not afford to attend and went to live with an older brother in Chicago.
In the summer of 1919, Bessie experienced the worst race riot in the history of Chicago.
A black youth on a homemade raft on Lake Michigan, drifted into an area for whites only,
which resulted in him being stoned and subsequently drowned in the water.
A violent riot grew in the streets of Chicago that lasted 4 days.
Witnessing all of this, Bessie determined that her cause in life would be to fight
against what she believed were the evils of racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance.
With the advent of World War one, Bessie's brothers were serving in the military.
They would come home with stories from their time in France about the French women who
were allowed to fly airplanes. These stories sparked Bessie's desire to become a pilot.
She applied to many flight schools across America,
but no school would take her because she was both African American and a woman.
Luckily, Bessie was a personal acquaintance of Robert Abbott, the legendary African American
newspaper editor, who advised her to travel to France, where she could learn how to fly.
But,first she had to learn French in order to fill out the applications to flight schools. Filled
with determination, Bessie took a better paying job and attended evening French language classes.
She was accepted at a flight school in France
and received her international pilot’s license on June 15, 1921. Determined to polish her skills,
Bessie spent the next two months taking lessons from a French ace pilot near Paris.
Bessie then returned to America with the dream of owning her own plane
and opening her own flight school.
But, in order to make a living as a civilian aviator she would have to become a "barnstorming"
stunt flier, performing dangerous tricks in airplanes for paying audiences.
So, it was back to Europe for more advanced training. Bessie then returned
to the United States on September 29, 1921 to launch her career in exhibition flying
She started by giving speeches and showing films of her daring, stunt flying tricks in churches,
theaters, and schools that were open to African Americans and whites alike.
In 1922, she performed with a flair for showmanship
for the first public flight every by an African American woman pilot.
"Queen Bess", as she was known, was a highly popular draw for the next
five years. Invited to important events and often interviewed by newspapers,
she was admired by both blacks and whites.
The thrill of stunt flying and the admiration of cheering crowds were only part of Bessie
Coleman's dream. Bessie never lost sight of her childhood vow to one day "amount to something."
She quickly gained a reputation as a skilled and daring pilot
who would stop at nothing to complete a difficult stunt.
Her hard work over the years helped her to save up enough money to purchase her own plane.
All the while, committed to not only promoting aviation but to combating racism, as well.
Over the course of 5 years, along with her public speaking engagements where
she actively encouraged women as well as African Americans to learn to fly, Bessie orchestrated and
performed in numerous successful air shows and flight exhibitions across the country.
"White audiences saw her as an attractive, petite uniqueness - a tiny beautiful woman
piloting an airplane. Black audiences took pride in her courage as she symbolized
hope that the African American community could participate in the skies" - www.bessiecoleman.org
For a detailed account of all of her accomplishments both in the air
and in service of the betterment of her race,
I encourage you to read her full bio on the website at BessieColeman.org.
Bessie Coleman never did manage to establish her own flight school.
On April 30, 1926,, Bessie Coleman died when the plane she was flying unexpectedly went into a dive
and then a spin at 3,000 feet above the ground.
Not wearing her seat belt, Bessie was thrown from the plane at 2,000 ft and died instantly
when she hit the ground. She was only 34 years old at the time of her death.
Since 1931, each year, on the anniversary of her death,
black pilots, men and women, fly over Bessie Coleman's grave at Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago
and drop flowers in her honor. In 1977, African American women pilots
formed the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club as a tribute to this amazing woman in history.
In 1995, the Bessie Coleman postage Stamp was made to remember all of her accomplishments.
This was the life of Bessie Coleman, the first African American and the first Native American
female pilot who contributed so much to the advancement of women in aviation.
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