Who is Bessie Coleman?

There are a handful of pilots that are part of what I call America’s “common knowledge.” Everyone knows of the Wright brothers, Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart, Chuck Yeager, and maybe others who had the “right stuff.” Sadly, we have whitewashed a lot of our history and forget (or don’t want to learn about) pioneers who haven’t fit the narrative. 

But here’s a pilot we should all know about: Queen Bess. Elizabeth Coleman was the tenth of thirteen children born to sharecroppers in 1892. Bessie worked the cotton fields and walked the four miles to her segregated school. She was fascinated by flying, but there weren’t any chances for African Americans to learn to fly in America. She worked and saved and eventually got sponsorships to go to France for flight school. She became the first African American to hold both an American pilot license and an international one. 

Her passion was flying and using aviation to combat racism (of which she endured quite a lot). An African American civilian pilot really didn’t have an opportunity to earn a living. So, ever resourceful, she turned to barnstorming. This was quite popular in the 1920’s and she performed dangerous tricks including loops, figure eights and a near-ground dip. Crowds loved her. 

As part of her dream to make a difference and combat racism, she refused to perform at air shows that excluded African Americans. Sadly, her dream of creating an aviation school for women and African Americans was never realized in her lifetime as she died in a plane crash in 1926. As some try to whitewash our history and ignore the contributions of all Americans, it’s worth knowing brave trailblazers like Bessie Coleman.