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Bessie Coleman was born into a poor family in a small town in Texas in 1893. Her mother had to support the family by doing laundry and Bessie and her sisters worked during the school holidays picking cotton to supplement the family's income.
But Bessie
Coleman was a good student who liked to read and excelled in mathematics.
She had a curious, adventurous mind and a lot of spunk, which resulted
in her becoming the first African American woman aviator.
Although
Coleman's mother encouraged her children to get an education, she could not
afford to send Bessie to college, so as a teenager Bessie worked as a
laundress also, saving her earnings for her college education. She attended
the Agricultural and Normal University in Oklahoma for one year, but then ran
out of money. She moved to Chicago, where two of her brothers lived, hoping to
find better opportunities than she had in rural Texas, but found
discrimination there as well. She attended beauty school and became a
manicurist. In Chicago, Coleman heard about the amazing exploits of World War
I flyers from soldiers coming home from Europe. She became interested in
flying, especially since her brother teased her that French women were
superior because some of them could fly planes. Coleman checked out some of
the local flying schools, but all refused to admit her because she was not
only a woman, but Black too.
Some good
came out of the manicurist job, however, because Coleman got to meet some of
the influential African American men in Chicago who came in to get a manicure.
One of them was Robert Abbot, the editor and publisher of the Chicago
Defender. He encouraged her to pursue her dream in France, where racism would
be less of a problem. He also became one of her financial backers. Her mind
made up, Coleman got a better job as the manager of a chili parlor, signed up
for French lessons in a downtown language school, and began to save her money
to go to France.
On
November 20, 1920, Bessie Coleman embarked on her voyage to France. She
enrolled in the Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron, completing a ten-month
course of study in only seven months. She learned to fly in a Nieuport Type 82
biplane, and although she witnessed a fellow student die in a crash, she would
not be deterred from achieving her goal: in June 1921, she was awarded an
international pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.
In
September, she returned to the U.S. where the press hailed her as "a
full-fledged aviatrix, the first of her race." She received a great deal
of publicity, but realized that she would need to become a stunt flyer in
order to make a living from flying, as commercial aviation was not much of an
industry in the early 1920's. Turned down once again for admission to advanced
flying courses in the U.S., Coleman returned to France to study aerobatics.
After completing the advanced course, she met Anthony Fokker, the aircraft
designer, and traveled to Germany where she received additional training at
the Fokker Corporation.
When Coleman
came back to the States, she performed as a stunt pilot in her first air
show in September 1922. It was an event honoring the veterans of the 369th
Expeditionary Force of WWI, an all-Black contingent. Coleman went on to
appear in numerous demonstrations and air shows. She always refused to
appear at any air show to which African Americans were not admitted. In
her spare time, she visited African American public schools to encourage
youngsters to consider aviation as a vocation. At one time, she offended
some of her sponsors by refusing to act in a film that she felt presented
a demeaning stereotype of African Americans.
Her ultimate
dream was to open a flying school to train Mexcian American pilots. She
was quoted in the Houston Post-Dispatch as saying that she would "make
Uncle Tom's cabin into a hangar by establishing a flying school."
Sadly, her dream was never realized. The first plane she bought, in hopes
of starting the school, was in poor condition and she was injured when
it crashed. During and after her 18 months of recuperation, she became
a successful lecturer, traveling around to show pictures and films of
her aerobatics, and speaking to encourage others to apply themselves.
She put some of the money she earned toward buying another aircraft, this
one an old WW I Army surplus plane.
On April
30, 1926, Bessie Coleman and her mechanic, William Wills, went up in the Army
surplus plane to prepare for a stunt the next day in which Coleman was to
parachute out of the aircraft. The plane flew for several minutes with no
trouble, ascending to 3,500 feet. Wills was at the controls, and Coleman had
unfastened her seatbelt so she could look out of the cockpit to survey the
field below where she would be jumping. Evidently a wrench fell into the
gearbox causing the plane to suddenly accelerate, go into a tailspin, and flip
over. Bessie Coleman fell out and was killed. Wills was killed also when the
plane hit the ground.
About
10,000 people attended her funeral. Afterwards, she was remembered by Black
Aviators who formed "Bessie Coleman Aero" clubs. In 1977, the Bessie
Coleman Aviators Club, open to all women pilots, was founded by a group of
African American women pilots from Chicago. On the anniversary of Bessie
Coleman's death, this group along with pilots from Negro Airmen International
and Chicago American Pilots Association fly low over Lincoln Cemetery, in a
suburb of Chicago, to drop flowers on her grave.
Bessie
Coleman was also honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1995, when she
appeared on a postage stamp. The request for a Bessie Coleman stamp was
initiated by the Chicago City Council, who wrote, "Bessie Coleman
continues to inspire... millions of young persons with her sense of adventure,
her positive attitude, and her determination to succeed." []
