Bessie Coleman
On June 15, 1921, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) issued Bessie her pilot’s license. Image from the Library of Congress.
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).
1920 Bessie Coleman's French language lessons. Learning French to get pilot's license in France. Image from: African American Collection
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1920 Known as “Queen Bess,” Coleman the stunt flier with Curtiss JN4D.Image from: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
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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.
The Bessie Coleman stamp was issued on April 17, 1955, in Chicago. (Photo: United States Postal Service)
Image in frame from:The Bessie Coleman Flying the Blues Blog
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"If I can create the minimum of my plans and desires, there shall be no regrets." -Bessie Coleman
The Chicago Defender Newspaper. Image from African American Collection.
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1922 Bessie Coleman with Curtiss JN4D. Image from: Roni Morales @rootsweb.com
First issue of Bessie Coleman's Aero News, published four years after her death. Pilot Dickinson standing in front of a biplane named after Illinois Congressman Oscar Depriest. Image: from African American Collection
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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
1926 The Chico Defender VS the Florida Times Union. Image and entire print and words from: The Chicago Defender