Sugar. Cocoa. &Honey.

notzi:

Daily Black History Fact:  Bessie Coleman

Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman is an extraordinary woman.  Not only was she was the first African-American woman to be an aviator, but she was also the first African-American to hold an international aviator’s license.

Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas on January 28, 1892.  She was born to sharecroppers, and while in school, her studies would be interrupted by the cotton harvest.  Her father left her mother and twelve siblings when Bessie was nine years old.  She finished school, and went away to college at Langston University (then known as Normal University) in Oklahoma.  Unfortunately, she ran out of money to stay in school, so she joined her brothers in Chicago to get a job.

While in Chicago, Bessie worked as a manicurist, and heard stories of fighter pilots flying in World War I.  Bessie began to dream of becoming a pilot herself.  However, she had no money to attend aviator school, and even if she had, no school would accept her, due to her skin color and gender.  Not even black aviator schools would accept her.  Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of The Chicago Defender, convinced her to study abroad, and he publicly promoted her cause in his paper.  Bessie also received backing from a banker named Jesse Binga, and she also took on a second job to make more money.

Bessie decided to go to France to learn how to be an aviator.  She studied the French language from the Berlitz School, and soon traveled to Paris, where the instructors were a lot more open to teaching an African-American woman how to fly.  On June 15, 1921, Bessie received her license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and continued to take classes from a French Ace pilot near Paris to hone in her skills.  When she returned to shores of New York in September of 1921, she became a media sensation.

Upon her return to the states, Bessie became a daredevil pilot, and flew in airshows.  She had to return to Paris in order to learn the ins and outs of being a stunt pilot, as once again, the US aviator schools refused to accept her as a student.  However, going back to Europe was worth it.  Bessie’s shows were highly popular.  Her first show was on September 3, 1922, at an event honoring an all black regime that fought in World War I.  Blacks and whites adored her, and she was hailed as ”the world’s greater woman flier” by The Chicago Defender.  She was known as “Queen Bess,” and she would stop at nothing to complete a difficult stunt.  She had even broken her leg and three ribs when her plane had stalled and crashed during a show.  Bessie’s fame in flying had even earned her a film role, but she walked off the set when she saw that the character perpetuated African-American stereotypes.

Bessie’s ultimate dream was to set up her own aviator school where anyone could learn how to fly, no matter their race or gender.  Unfortunately, her dream was never seen to fruition.  In Jacksonville, Florida, on April 30, 1926, Bessie’s plane malfunctioned while trying to perform a stunt, and she was thrown from it.  She died as soon as she hit the ground.  She was 34.  Bessie had three different funeral services in three separate cities, all of which had thousands of mourners in attendance.  There were many aero clubs set up in her name after her death, and in turn they all came together and held the first ever all African-American airshow in 1931. Mae Jemison, an African-American female astronaut wrote a book about Bessie’s life, and in 2000, Bessie was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame.  Bessie Coleman’s life was proof that with hard work and determination, anything is possible.

—-Written by Notzi

Sources:  Wikipedia, “Black Wings:  The First Female African-American Pilot”