Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was the first Black American female pilot ever.
Her mother was born a slave and could not read. Her father was a black Choctaw Indian. Bessie was the tenth of 13 children (four died young). They had a house on their own little piece of land in Waxahachie, Texas.
She loved to read. Her mother saved money to rent books from the travelling library that came by twice a year. She read the Bible, Booker T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (she did not want to wind up like Uncle Tom or Topsy!). Most of all she loved the Book of Psalms. She read the Bible to her mother.
She was good with numbers. So, even though she was too much of a daydreamer to be good at picking cotton, she could make sure the foreman did not underpay her family.
She saved money for her education by washing clothes for rich white women across town. Despite that she had in effect only six years of schooling.
She went north to Chicago to live with her older brothers. She lived on the South Side and became a manicurist. When her brothers came home from fighting in France in the First World War they told her about the fighter planes! They said even French women flew planes! From that moment she gave up being a manicurist and started becoming a pilot.
No one in America would teach her how to fly – some because she was a woman, some because she was black. Blacks and women were seen as lacking the brains and courage it took to fly. So she saved her money and learned French.
In 1920, with the help of a black newspaperman and a black banker, she went to France to learn how to fly. By 1922 she was one of the best pilots in the world. Her flying was a thing of beauty and daring.
Once back in America she wanted to open a black flying school. She raised money by giving talks at theatres, schools and churches but, most of all, by giving air shows. Back then air shows were for whites only, but she would only fly if blacks could come too – even when she did air shows across the Jim Crow South.
Unlike Amelia Earhart, she had to use second-hand planes. In 1923 her engine failed. The crash could be heard miles away. But she lived. A few months later she could walk again and was back in the air.
On April 30th 1926 during a practice flight she did not have her seat belt on when the engine failed and the plane spun out of control. She fell 600 metres to her death.
In Chicago 10,000 came to her funeral. People were crying. Her friend and hero Ida B. Wells was there.
Every year on April 30th black pilots fly over her grave in Chicago and drop flowers.
See also:
- Robert Lawrence
- Tuskegee Airmen
- Ida B. Wells
- Jim Crow
- Booker T Washington
- Fred Hampton – also had a large funeral in black Chicago
- St Augustine – also loved Psalms
- Gabby Douglas – the same sort of courage
- Annie Easley – one of NASA’s first computer programmers
INCREDIBLE WOMAN!!!!! …wow…
Thanks for this inspiring post Abagond. This type of history “lesson” wasn’t taught in any of the American schools I attended back in the day.
… whiteness : (
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Wow! We should have learned about her in school when we did Amelia Earhart!
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Congratulations for a post on a great person. I did a history class about her (lots of info on Wiki) and the response was wonderful! Even today her achievements would be remarkable!
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wow i never heard of her.i have a lot to learn.This woman is amazing she overcame being a woman in a man’s world and being black in a white man’s world,just inspiring.This is why we need to be in the history books not just have one month its not enough time to learn about amazing people like this.The only blacks we learned about in school was mlk,rosa parks,and george washington carver.I bet whites will be trying to get rid of black history month saying its not necessary anymore just like their trying to do with affirmative action.
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Thank you so much! I never heard of this woman, but I’m not surprised. Anything I learned about Black History prior to college, I heard from family or read from Golden Legacy comic books. Can’t wait to pass this info on to my nieces and nephews.
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Oh, wow! She was ahead of her time. Now this is why it’s important we learn about notable people in black history. I’ve only heard of Amelia Earhart. White people’s accomplishments shouldn’t be the only thing in focus.
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Wow, much respect to Ms. Bessie Colman! an extraordinary woman, by any standard. how does Abagond dig up these ghosts? I can’t believe she was never even mentioned in my educational career.
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I have came across, little bits of information about this remarkable and beautiful black woman.
Its a shame but if we as black people, want to know about our contribution to American history, we have to do our own research, being its not in the history books, that we read in school as children.
I was a little sad to read the part in the article, where it says how she died, only taking comfort in knowing she died, doing what she loved to do.
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What an extraordinary woman. Smart and fearless. They should make a movie about her. Taraji P. Henson could play her. She is a very positive role model for African American women.
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She belongs right up there with Amelia Earheart.
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Bessie Coleman was a very inspirational woman for young Black women like me of today to look up to.
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What a remarkable woman indeed.
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@ leigh204
You’re still alive? Hey!
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@ Ankhesen Mié:
Hey, yourself, girl! I’m alive and still kicking! Good to see you! 😀 😀
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[…] Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was the first Black American female pilot ever. Her mother was born a slave and could not read. Her father was a black Choctaw Indian. Bessie was the tenth of 13 children… – MORE – […]
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[…] See on abagond.wordpress.com […]
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It’s a shame this woman doesn’t get the recognition she deserves, because she was pretty incredible.
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Bessie Coleman Drive at O’Hare International Airport is named for her. It’s funny. I have driven it many times but I did not know who she was until read this.
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This woman is amazing and inspirational, but reading about her also makes me sad that we never hear much about the accomplishments of racialised people in history anywhere.
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Bessie Coleman is one of my SHE-roes 🙂 Along with Bridget “Biddy” Mason
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/mason-bridget-biddy-1818-1891 (lots of history lessons we’ll be teaching the kiddos about. Thanks Abagond for spreading the knowledge.
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Thanks-I love this story for the simple fact that brave histories need to get heard.
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Another great flying under the radar. Pun intended.
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Reblogged this on revealingartisticthoughts and commented:
Thank you so much Abagond. I read about her, but I forgot. Thanks for reminding me. Thank you Bessie Coleman for being an amazing icon and inspiration!
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I’ve actually been reading up on Bessie Coleman a lot lately, I prepared a lesson with the stamp for my second-grade class in the fall and this semester I’m teaching students a reading strategy with her biography. Once I heard about her I was determined to teach as many people as possible about her life. I was telling my partner about her just the other day.
Another Afro-American hero is Bass Reeves. I’d love to see you do a piece on him because his story is so amazing, yet I suspect we won’t ever hear about him until some hollywood studio decides they want to make money off of his life story.
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