Bessie Coleman

Bessie Coleman 

1921

First African-American (male or female) to Receive a Pilot License (Women in Aviation International)

Bessie Coleman was born on January 26^th, 1892 (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). She was number 10 of 13 Coleman children and was born and raised in Texas picking cotton and doing laundry for customers with her mother (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). She was born during a time of great racial injustice and poverty and because of that her family suffered. When she was 23 Bessie traveled to Chicago to live with her two older brothers (PBS). She had hoped that the Windy City could offer her a better life than the one she grew up with in Texas. When she got there, she attended beauty school and became a manicurist in a local barbershop (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). She began working and saving almost as much as she could.

Bessie first learned about flying after reading about aviation and watching newsreels about flight (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). Then her brother stepped in. He had served overseas in the way and told his sister all about French women who were far superior to any of those in Chicago. He declared that French women could even fly airplanes and challenged that it was something Bessie would never do (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). Little did he know that those words would spark something miraculous.

From there Bessie began applying to flight schools across the country. She became convinced she should be up there, not just reading about it (The Ninety-Nines, Inc.). However, in the early years of the 20th century she had two strikes against her: her race and her gender (Smithsonian ). People could not see past the fact that she was a black woman and refused to admit her to any of the flight schools. So Bessie made a hard decision, Coleman learned French at a Berlitz school in the Chicago loop, withdrew the savings she had accumulated from her work as a manicurist and she set off for Paris from New York on November 20, 1920 (PBS). She left all that she knew behind to pursue her dreams of flying.

When she arrived in France, Bessie attended the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). There she learned to fly using French Nieuport airplanes (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). It was hard work for her being the only non-Caucasian student in her class, she was taught in a 27-foot biplane that was known to fail frequently, sometimes in the air (PBS). During her training Coleman witnessed a fellow student die in a plane crash, which she described as a "terrible shock" to her nerves. But the accident didn't deter her (PBS). After seven months of training though, she finally did it. On June 15, 1921 she received her pilots license (Smithsonian ). She was the first black person in the world to earn an aviator's license, male or female (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision).

She returned to the states in 1921 and began teaching other black women to fly, giving lectures and performing at flying exhibitions (The Ninety-Nines, Inc.). Although it was a fulfilling job for her, what she really wanted to do was establish the first African American flight school (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). However, since she did not have the funds to do so, she turned acrobatics. Since barnstorming seemed to be the only way for her to make money she became an aerial daredevil (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). In 1925 she moved to Houston and performed throughout the South, drawing multi-cultural crowds (Smithsonian ).

Over the next five years Coleman performed at countless air shows. The first took place on September 3, 1922, in Garden City, Long Island. The "Chicago Defender" publicized the event saying the "wonderful little woman" Bessie Coleman would do "heart thrilling stunts." According to a reporter from Kansas, as many as 3,000 people, including local dignitaries, attended the event. Over the following years, Coleman used her position of prominence to encourage other African Americans to fly. She also made a point of refusing to perform at locations that wouldn't admit members of her race (PBS). She was given the nickname of “Brave Bessie” or “Queen Bess” for her heroic accomplishments (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). It didn’t take long for the American people to recognize her immense talent, but she wasn’t perfect.

When learning a skill, one is bound to make mistakes and have accidents, and Bessie Coleman was no exception. In February 1923, Coleman suffered her first major accident while preparing for an exhibition in Los Angeles; her Jenny airplane's engine unexpectedly stalled and she crashed. Knocked unconscious by the accident, Coleman received a broken leg, some cracked ribs, and multiple cuts on her face. Shaken badly by the incident, it took her over a year to recover fully (U.S. Centennial Flight Commision). But recover she did, even broken bones could not deter her from accomplishing her dreams. Bessie continued to pursue her dream of opening her own flight school.

“She had nearly reached her goal of opening a school, when on April 30, 1926; she went up for a practice flight for a May Day celebration in Jacksonville, Florida. About ten minutes into the flight, the Curtiss Jenny biplane, piloted by her mechanic and publicity agent, William Will, went into a nosedive and flipped. Coleman, who had not fastened her seatbelt, was thrown from the plane and plunged to her death” (Smithsonian ). Her life may have ended tragically but she left a lasting impression on the world. She earned her nicknames and inspired countless pilots to pursue their dreams and fly. She was a role model to both men and women for overcoming each obstacle she faced and that is why she made history.

Works Cited

1.     PBS. Bessie Coleman. 15 September 2012 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/peopleevents/pandeAMEX02.html>.

2.     Smithsonian . Bessie Coleman -- Women in Aviation and Space History. 15 September 2012 <http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/women/coleman.cfm>.

3.     The Ninety-Nines, Inc. Bessie Coleman. 01 June 2009. 15 September 2012 <http://www.ninety-nines.org/index.cfm/bessie_coleman.htm>.

4.     U.S. Centennial Flight Commision. Bessie Coleman. 15 September 2012 <http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Coleman/EX11.htm>.

5.     Women in Aviation International. Women in Aviation International. 15 September 2012 <http://www.wai.org/resources/history.cfm>.

6.     First Flight Society. Bessie Coleman. 25 November 2012 <http://www.firstflight.org/shrine/bessie_colman.php>.

7.     rootsweb. Bessie Coleman-Aviator. 25 November 2012 <http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txecm/bessie_coleman.htm>.