Bessie Coleman

Whoosh! If you thought you were going to be the first black woman to fly, you thought wrong! Bessie Coleman just made history!

Bessie Coleman was born January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas. Bessie Coleman was the tenth of thirteen children in her family. Her parents were sharecroppers and her father was part African American and part Cherokee Indian. Bessie started school at six, walking four miles every day to an all black school. She was very smart and a great math student. In 1901 her father got tired of fighting prejudice in Texas and returned home to Oklahoma. Her older brothers soon left too and Mrs. Coleman was left with four girls under 10. Her mom took a job as a maid for a family. Coleman only had enough money to go to college for one semester. Later she moved to Chicago to become a manicurist. Bessie really wanted to make something of herself, so in 1920 she moved to France and she went to aviation school there. On June 15, 1921 Bessie became the first black woman to ever earn a license from the prestigious Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. When she returned to New York she was famous. Bessie hoped to earn money flying for crowds to entertain them.

Bessie broke the barriers for African Americans and for women with her spectacular flying and her speeches. She often refused to perform unless both blacks and whites could enjoy her flying and the crowds could enter using the same game.

Bessie died in a horrible accident in 1926 in Jacksonville, Florida, during a test flight with her mechanic. The mechanic, who was piloting the plane, lost control and Bessie fell from an open cockpit. In 1929 her dream of a school for black aviators became true when William J. Powell established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles, California in 1929. Bessie even had a stamp created to honor her accomplishment.

Now you know why Bessie Coleman is an important woman in America’s history.

by Chris R., fourth grade, 2006