From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bessie "Queen Bess" Coleman (January 26, 1892 - April
30, 1926), was the first African American woman to become an airplane
pilot, and the first American woman to hold an international pilot's
licence. She was also the first black licensed pilot in the world.
Ms. Coleman was married briefly to Charles Wilson Pankey.
Birth & Early Life
Born in Atlanta, Texas, Coleman was the twelfth of thirteen
children. Her father, George Coleman, was three-quarter Choctaw
Indian. Her parents were sharecroppers yet her early childhood
was a happy one, spent playing in the front yard or on the porch.
Sunday mornings and afternoons were spent at church.
As the other children began to age and find work in the fields,
Bessie assumed responsibilities around the house. She looked after
her sisters, helped her mother, Susan Coleman, work in her garden,
and performed many of the everyday chores of running the house.
Bessie began school at the age of six and had to walk 4 miles
each day to her all-black, one-room school. Despite sometimes
lacking such materials as chalk and pencils Bessie was an excellent
student. She loved to read and established herself as an outstanding
math student. Bessie completed all eight grades of her one-room
Every year Bessie's routine of school, chores, and church was
interrupted by the cotton harvest. Each man, woman, and child
was needed to pick the cotton, so the Coleman family worked together
in the fields during the harvest.
In 1901, Bessie's life took a dramatic turn. George Coleman left
his family. He had become fed up with the racial barriers that
existed in Texas. He returned to Oklahoma, or Indian Territory
as it was then called, to find better opportunities, but Susan
and the children did not go with him.
At the age of twelve Bessie was accepted into the Missionary
Baptist Church. When she turned eighteen Bessie took all of her
savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and
Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma. Bessie completed only
one term before she ran out of money and was forced to return
home. In 1915, at the age of twenty-three, she went to live with
her brothers in Chicago while she looked for work.
Coleman knew there was no future for her in her home town, so
she moved to Chicago where she joined two of her brothers when
she was 23. She worked at a supermarket there with her brothers.
She also worked at the White Sox Barber Shop as a manicurist.
There she heard tales of the world from pilots who were returning
home from World War I. They told stories about flying in the war
and Coleman started to fantasize about being a pilot. Her brother
used to tease her by commenting that French women were better
than African-American women because French women were pilots already.
At the barbershop, Coleman met many influential men from the black
community, including Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of
the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, a real estate promoter.
Coleman received financial backing from Binga, and from the Chicago
Defender, who capitalized on her flamboyant personality and her
beauty to promote his newspaper, and to promote her cause.
Coleman took French language class at the Berlitz school in
Chicago, and then travelled to Paris on November 20, 1920. She
could not gain admission to American flight schools because she
was black and a woman. Coleman was the only non-white student
at her French flight school, and she learned while using a plane
that had failed many times. Once, she saw a fellow student die
during practice. However, she learned quickly: in seven months,
she was granted a pilot license.
In September of 1921, she became a media sensation when she
returned to the United States. Invited to important events and
often interviewed by newspapers, she was admired by both blacks
and whites. In 1922, she participated at her first airshow, in
Long Island. Coleman continued to perform in airshows, and survived
several crashes. In Los Angeles, California, she broke a leg and
three ribs when her plane stalled and crashed on February 22,
1922. As her notoriety grew, she was invited to make a film about
her life. Ultimately, she walked off the set because she felt
the script stereotyped blacks. Her ultimate aim was to improve
the lot of African Americans by opening a flight school they would
be able to attend, as American flight schools were closed to them.
On April 30, 1926, Coleman was preparing for an airshow in Jacksonville,
Florida, with her mechanic and publicity agent, William Wills,
at the controls. Coleman had recently purchased a plane in Dallas
and it had just been flown to Jacksonville. Her friends and family
did not consider the aircraft safe and implored her not to fly
it. For the flight, Coleman did not put on her seatbelt, because
she was planning a parachute jump for the next day and wanted
to look over the cockpit to examine the terrain. About 12 minutes
into the flight the plane did not pull out of a planned nosedive;
instead it accelerated into a tailspin. Bessie Coleman was thrown
from the plane at 500 hundred feet and died instantly when she
hit the ground. William Wills was unable to gain control of the
plane and it plummeted to the ground. Wills died upon impact and
the plane burst into flames. Despite the badly burned plane, an
investigation revealed that the crash was possibly due to a wrench
that was lodged in the control gears. Bessie Coleman is buried
in Chicago's Lincoln Cemetery.
Funeral and legacy
Her funeral was attended by 10,000 mourners. Many of them, including
Ida B. Wells, were prominent members of Black society. As the
first African American woman pilot, she has been honored in several
ways since her death: in 1931, a group of Black male pilots performed
the first yearly fly-by over Coleman's grave, in 1977, a group
of African American women pilots established the Bessie Coleman
Aviators Club and in 1995, she was honored with her image on a
postage stamp by the United States Postal Service.
The American Experience: Bessie Coleman
of stamp and other information
profile for Bessie Coleman
Coleman web page ==