![]() In 1992, the Chicago City Council requested a postage stamp in her honor, stating, “Bessie Coleman continues to inspire untold thousands even millions of young persons with her sense of adventure, her positive attitude, and her determination to succeed.” The Bessie Coleman stamp was released in 1995. Wells famously spoke at her funeral in Chicago.ĭespite Bessie Coleman’s death, her story is a lasting one. Intersectional civil rights activist Ida B. Her body went on to Orlando and Chicago, where thousands more came out to mourn her and honor her incredible legacy. Nonetheless, close to 5,000 people came to her memorial in Jacksonville. She garnered a reputation as a brazen and glamorous woman and mingled with African Prince Kojo from the Kingdom of Dahomey, the beautiful singer Josephine Baker (who received her own pilot’s license in 1933), and actor William “Bojangles” Robinson.įlickr The Bessie Coleman stamp, released in 1995.Ĭoleman’s demise made national headlines, though her co-pilot Wills reportedly made more headlines because of his race. Indeed, she reportedly only performed for crowds that were allowed to go through the same entrance. Her audiences numbered in the thousands and Coleman made sure that those audiences were racially integrated. The aviatrix held fantastic shows where she performed daring stunts thousands of feet in the air. She spent a year in France, Germany, and the Netherlands completing courses in stunt flying before returning to the states as a headliner. And to do that, she needed more training. ‘Queen Bess’ Only Performed For Integrated Crowdsīessie Coleman was hailed as “a full-fledged aviatrix, the first of her race” and was honored at a musical in New York, where the entire audience, including the several hundred white people in the orchestra seats, rose to applaud her accomplishment.īut as the age of commercial flying was still a decade away, Coleman’s only way to make a living as a pilot was to perform for audiences as a stunt flier. In September of that year, Coleman headed to New York where she became a media sensation. In June 1921, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded Coleman an international pilot license, making her the first African American woman to have done so. In seven months, Bessie Coleman couldn’t just fly, but she could do spins, parachute from the cockpit, and walk out onto the wings of the plane. When Bessie Coleman died in 1926, she had been performing for only five years.Ĭoleman learned to fly on the Nieuport 82 biplane, a tenuous vehicle with a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat and a rudder bar under the pilot’s feet. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Her 1921 pilot license. Then, in 1916, she moved with her brother to Chicago. She could only afford one semester and was forced to drop out. Unlike many women of any race during her time, Coleman even attended college at the Langston Industrial College, now Langston University in Oklahoma. ![]() ![]() Her mother was Black and her father was Black and Cherokee - which made Bessie Coleman the first woman of Native American descent to take to the skies in America, as well.īoth of Coleman’s parents were sharecroppers who couldn’t read, but she walked four miles every day to attend a one-room segregated school where she learned to read and excelled in math. Bessie Coleman Sees An Opportunity In The SkiesĮlizabeth Coleman was born the 10th of 12 children in rural Texas on January 26, 1892. She reached remarkable heights for a woman of her time through her bravery and persistence, but in 1926, it all came crashing down with her tragic demise. When she returned to America, she took crowds by storm performing mid-flight tricks. Wikimedia Commons Bessie Coleman and her plane in 1922.
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