Bessie Coleman
Bessie Coleman was born into a large family in Atlanta, Texas. She is the 1st black woman to earn an international pilot's license. No aviation school in the U.S. would allow her to take flying lessons because she was black (her father was a Native American and her mother was an African American) and a woman. Alone, she boldly moved to France, taught herself French, and earned her pilots license. When she returned to the U.S., she gave lectures to churches and schools to encourage black men and women to enter aviation. She would not fly in air shows that would not allow people of color.
“I point to Bessie Coleman and say without hesitation that here is a woman, a being, who exemplifies and serves as a model to all humanity: the very definition of strength, dignity, courage, integrity, and beauty.” Mae Jemison- Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator (1993).
I decided blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I had faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly. "Bessie Coleman, who had to go to France to learn how to fly as Americans would not instruct a black lady. -Quoted from Ladybirds by Henry M. Holden.
"If I can create the minimum of my plans and desires, there shall be no regrets." -Bessie Coleman
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"The air is the only place free from prejudice." - Bessie Coleman
"It has long since
come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let
things happen to them. They went out and happened to things!"-Bessie Coleman