January April By GS

Bessie was the first Black American woman to be a pilot and the first Black American man or woman to hold an international pilot licence.

Bessie was the tenth child of thirteen, born in Atlanta Texas, when Bessie was 2 her father moved the family to Waxahachie, Texas. Her parents George and Susan were very poor sharecroppers and her father was part Cherokee (native American). She went to a 1 room all-black school for eight years, she was an excellent maths student, the school would be closed for cotton picking season. When she was 9 years old her dad left her family to return to Indian Territory as he was fed up with the racial discrimination in Texas, Susan who did not want to live on an Indian reservation stayed behind with her children. When she finished school Bessie worked in a laundry, when she was 18 she took all her money and enrolled at the Oklahoma Coloured Agricultural and Normal University but after one term she had to leave and go home because she had no money left. In 1915 she moved to live with two of her brothers in Chicago where she got a job as a manicurist in a barber shop. Pilots who had returned home from World War 1 used to come into the shop and tell her stories about flying in the war. This started Bessie dreaming of being a pilot.

Bessie could not learn to be a pilot in America as the American flight schools would not accept woman or black people and no white pilot would teach her. She met Robert Abbot a publisher, he encouraged her to go to France to learn to be a pilot. He said the French were not racist and were the world’s leaders in aviation. His paper the Chicago Defender and a banker, sponsored her. Bessie travelled to Paris in November 1920 where she learned to fly a biplane at the best school in France. She got her Federation Aeronautique Internationale (F.A.I. International) pilots licence on June Bessie then travelled Europe to get more flying experience so she could perform in air shows back in America. Her 1 st American airshow was in September 1922 held on Long Island near New York City. She was called the worlds greatest woman flier who got a reputation as a skilled and daring pilot who would do anything to complete a difficult stunt.

On April while preparing for an airshow in Florida, Bessie was in the passenger seat of her JN-4 “Jenny” airplane while her mechanic William Wills was the pilot. Bessie had recently learned parachute jumping and was planning a jump the next day. Bessie wasn’t wearing her seat belt so she could lean over the edge of her plane to find landing spots. While Bessie was looking out from the back seat, the plane suddenly went into a steep nosedive and flipped over, she was thrown out of the plane at 500ft and died immediately when she hit the ground. Her pilot didn’t gain control and he died when the plane hit the ground and burst into flames. It was later discovered that her mechanic & pilot, William Wills, had left a wrench in the engine that had slid into the gearbox and jammed it.

Over the years Bessie’s impact on the aviation industry, especially African American’s in aviation, has grown. In 1927 the Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs opened across the USA. In 1989 the First Flight Society inducted Bessie into their shrine that honours people that have achieved significant “firsts” in aviation development. In 1990 the Mayor of Chicago changed the name of a road at the International Airport to Bessie Coleman Drive and they now have Bessie Coleman Day in Chicago every May 2 nd. In 1995 she was honoured with her picture on a stamp & inducted into the Women in Aviation Hall of Fame.

Bessie Coleman became a role model for women and African Americans. She fought segregation by using her influence as a celebrity to make change.

US Centennial of flight commission Wikipedia.org Biography.com