Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in 1892. Her mother was African American. Her father was part African American and part American Indian. Her family was poor. Bessie had to walk almost four miles to go to school. When she was nine years old, her father left the family.
Bessie had to pick
cotton and wash clothes to help earn money for her family and save small
amounts for her education. Bessie was proud of her race, something she learned
from her hard-working and religious mother.
She managed to save
enough money to attend one year of college in Oklahoma. The money ran out and
she had to leave after only one year, but in that year she learned about
flying. She read about the Wright
brothers and the first American female pilot, Harriet Quimby. She thought more and more about flying. At the age of 23, living in Chicago with her
older brothers, she heard stories from pilots returning from WWI. She decided
she was going to be a pilot and worked several jobs to save money to learn
how. It was a herculean task as a woman
and a woman of color. Finding that there were no opportunities for her in the
United States she decided to head to Europe.
She studied French at a language school in Chicago. She also took a higher
paying job supervising a restaurant in order to save more. Soon after the war ended Bessie went to
France and attended the famous flight school, Ecole d’Aviation des Ferres
Caudron in northern France, where she completed seven months of flight training
and earned her international permit to fly in 1921. She was the first black
woman to ever earn an international pilot’s license.
She returned to
Chicago as the only black female pilot in the United States. Bessie soon learned
that it was nearly impossible to earn enough money to live. In 1922 she returned to Europe to complete
four more months of training, learning impressive tricks, with French and
German pilots.
Coleman returned to
New York where she gave her first public flying performance in the U.S. Before
a large gathering she rolled her plane among other breathtaking feats such as
stalling the plane and starting again just before it landed. The crowd went wild. She became famous and
performed across the county. She was a
huge success but Bessie wanted more.
She knew she needed a
plane of her own and she wanted to establish a school for black pilots in the U.S.so
Bessie traveled to Los Angeles where she enlisted the support of a company that
sold tires. They helped her purchase a
Curtiss JN-Four airplane, commonly called a Jenny. In return she was to promote
the company in public events. An air
show was organized in Los Angeles but the Jenny’s engine stalled soon after takeoff
and crashed. Coleman suffered a broken leg
and other injuries. She was made of tough stuff though and sent a message to
her public…”Tell them all that as soon as I can walk I’m going to fly!”
In 1925 she traveled
to her home state of Texas where she gave speeches and showed films of her
flights. Soon she had enough money to
pay for another Jenny and continued her speeches, organized more air shows in
Texas, Georgia and Florida hoping to earn enough money to open her school.
On April 13, 1926
during a flight the controls of the Jenny stuck and with no safety devices in
place, such as a safety belt or parachute, she plummeted to her to her death as
the plane rolled.
Her powerful influence
continues today. “Because of Bessie
Coleman, we have overcome that which was much worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within
ourselves and dared to dream.” Lt.
William Powell.
In 1992 Chicago City
Council passed a resolution praising her.
It said: “Bessie Coleman continues to inspire untold thousands, even
millions of young persons with her sense of adventure, her positive attitude
and her determination to succeed…”
