Bessie Coleman
1892-1926
Coleman, Bessie
(b. January 26, 1892, Atlanta, Tex.; d. April 30, 1926, Jacksonville, Fla.), American aviator, the first African American woman aviator, accomplished stunt-flier.Elizabeth Coleman, later known as Bessie, was born January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas. Her mother, Susan Coleman, was African American, and her father, George Coleman, was one-quarter African American and three-quarters Choctaw
Indian. While Coleman was still an infant her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, but a few years later her father returned to an Indian reservation in the Oklahoma Territory. Coleman's mother was left to care for the large family by picking cotton and doing domestic work. Susan Coleman enlisted Bessie's help in these jobs; in return, Bessie was allowed to save the wages she earned to help finance her college education.Coleman finished high school, but the money she had saved was only enough to pay for one semester at the Colored Agricultural Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma (later Langston University). Coleman left the University for Chicago, where two of her brothers lived. Here, she took a course in manicuring and obtained a position in the White Sox barbershop. Through discussions with her army veteran brother and reading about
World War I, Coleman became interested in the new field of aviation. Resolved to become a pilot, she quit her job and applied to various aeronautics schools in the U.S.Because of racist and sexist policies, she was repeatedly rejected. With the encouragement of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founder and editor of the
Chicago Defender, and with financial assistance from Jesse Binga, founder and president of the Binga State Bank, Coleman took French language lessons and went to France to obtain her pilot's license. She graduated in June 1921 with a specialization in parachuting and stunt flying from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Coleman was the first African American woman aviator.Coleman returned to the U.S. and became an accomplished stunt-flier. Her barnstorming, as it was then called, won acclaim from all who saw her flying exhibitions; and for her daring stunts she became known as "Brave Bessie." Initially she performed for white audiences, but after she established her reputation, she concentrated her shows in the South primarily for African Americans and insisted upon desegregated audiences.
Through lectures she gave at schools and churches, Coleman inspired other African American men and women to pursue careers in aviation. Using funds she received from lecturing and performing, she dreamed of opening an aviation training school for African Americans. This goal was not met because of her untimely death at the age of 30. On April 30, 1926, during a rehearsal for her show in Jacksonville, Florida, Coleman's plane had mechanical failures that caused it to somersault; Coleman fell 2000 feet to her death.
Coleman was memorialized throughout the 1930s in Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs and in the Clubs' periodical, Bessie Coleman Aero News. In 1975, a group of black women in Chicago interested in aviation and aerospace founded the Bessie Coleman Aviators organization. She is also honored every Memorial Day by African American pilots who fly in formation above the Chicago Lincoln Cemetery and drop wreaths on her grave. For her pioneering efforts in opening the field of aviation to African Americans, Coleman was commemorated on a U.S. postal stamp in 1995.
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