By: Laila Schwin and Valery Warner
February 17, 2022
Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to hold a pilot’s license. Equally important, she was the first Native American person to hold one, as well. She excelled greatly as a civilian aviator and spent much of her flight career performing airshows.
Elizabeth (Bessie) Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, on January 26, 1892. She was born to Susan Coleman, who was African American, and George Coleman, who was African American and also Cherokee. She grew up with twelve siblings, with her being the tenth of the thirteen children. Ultimately, only eight of her siblings survived their childhood.
Shortly after Coleman’s birth, her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas. She grew up on sharecropping farmland with her family while attending a small, segregated school. She farmed cotton with her family throughout her childhood as part of supporting their lives as sharecroppers. In 1901, her father left the family to move to modern-day Oklahoma on Native American land to find better opportunities for himself.
At age 12, Coleman was accepted into and started attending the Missionary Baptist Church School on a scholarship that she had earned. When she turned 18, she began attending the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now known as Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. She only completed one term before she ran out of money and had to quit her academic pursuits.
In 1915, she moved to Chicago, Illinois, with some of her brothers. While there, she worked as a manicurist and also worked as a manager at a chili parlor to help her save money for her newfound dream of becoming a pilot. She ended up being in contact with Robert S. Abbott, the founder of the newspaper (The Chicago Defender). Abbott, as well as businessman Jesse Binga, helped Coleman fund her flight school dreams and were a driving force in her being able to study abroad to get her pilot’s license.
Because there were no flight school options for African Americans, Native Americans, and women in The United States (with Coleman being a combination of all three), she saved for and gained sponsorships to be able to attend flight school in France. To prepare for her trip, she took a French language class at the Berlitz Language School in Chicago. She traveled to Paris, France, to officially begin her flight training on November 20, 1920. She spent a considerable amount of time in France for pilot training.
With commercial flights still being over a decade away, Bessie realized in order to keep her position as a civilian aviation professional that she would have to become what is called a “Stunt Flier”. Becoming a stunt flier would require her to take advanced lessons. After returning to Chicago, she had no luck finding someone willing to teach her. In February of 1922, she sailed back to Europe. She spent two months there completing an advanced course in aviation. She also traveled to Germany, where she visited the Fokker Corporation and received additional training from one of the company’s chief pilots. After all her flight training was completed, she returned to the U.S. to start her career in exhibition flying.
Over the course of the next five years, Bessie created a name for herself being known as “The World’s Greatest Woman Flier”. Drawing such high popularity to herself, she was invited to important events and often interviewed by journalists. “Queen Bessie” was admired by all. She made her first appearance in an American airshow on September 3, 1922, at an event honoring veterans of the All-Black, 369th Infantry Regiment of World War I. Six weeks later, she participated in another Chicago air show to honor World War I’s 370th Infantry Regiment.
In Los Angeles, she broke a leg and three ribs when her plane stalled and crashed on February 22, 1923. As a professional aviator, Coleman often would be criticized by the press for her opportunistic nature and the flamboyant style that she brought to her exhibition flying, but nothing could stop her from losing sight of her childhood dreams.
Committed to promoting aviation and combating racism, Coleman spoke to audiences across the country about the pursuit of aviation and goals for African Americans. She absolutely refused to participate in aviation events that prohibited the attendance of African Americans.
On April 30, 1926, Bessie Colman passed away. She had recently purchased a Curtiss JN-4 aircraft that had been poorly maintained. While her friends and family tried to encourage her not to fly the plane, she refused and did so anyway. Ten minutes into the flight, the plane took a dive and spun 3,000 feet towards the ground. Colman was thrown out of the plane at about 2,000 feet, instantly killing her at the age of 34.
Her legacy as a public figure and media sensation, as well as her outstanding achievements as a pilot, made Bessie Coleman one of the greatest pilots to have ever lived.
(Information for this article can be found at National Women’s History.)
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 