The tenth of thirteen children born to sharecroppers in Atlanta, Texas, Coleman was an avid student and a hard worker. But when her father left the family to return to his own Cherokee roots, Coleman knew there was no future for her in her hometown. She moved to Chicago in search of a better life. She lived with two of her brothers while she looked for work.
Becoming a Pilot in the Face of Adversity
Coleman heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I in the barber shop where she worked as a manicurist. Those stories spurred her imagination and her determination to become a pilot. It was at this barber shop that Coleman met Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender.
Coleman had to overcome discrimination on two levels: she was black and she was a woman. To do so, she had to study aviation outside the United States. No American flight schools would admit her, nor would any U.S. black aviator train her. It was Abbott who encouraged Coleman to study abroad.
Coleman studied French in Chicago then went to Paris, France to learn to fly. Her determination won out. On June 15, 1920 Coleman became the first African-American woman in the world to earn an aviation pilot's license as well as an international aviation license. She spent two more months taking flying lessons from a French pilot near Paris.
Stunt Flyer
After returning to the states in September of that same year, Coleman realized that in order to make a living as a woman pilot - with commercial aviation a decade away - she would have to become a "barnstorming" stunt flier. In 1922 she returned to Europe where she took more advanced courses in aviation, still unable to procure further training or education in the states. However, when she did return to the United States, she became a media sensation and was immediately dubbed "Queen Bess."
For the next five years, Coleman's flying stunts were a highly popular draw. She performed difficult and daredevil maneuvers at Curtiss Field on Long Island in New York City and the Checkerboard Airdrome (now Chicago Midway Airport) to large crowds. She built a reputation as a skilled and daring pilot.
Her popularity even led to an offer for a role in a feature-length film. She accepted until she learned she would be required to wear tattered clothes with a pack on her back using a walking stick. She had no intention of portraying blacks in a derogatory image.
Coleman had a big dream: to open a flying school for young black aviators. Toward this end, she did a series of lectures in black theaters in Florida and Georgia. She also opened a beauty shop in Orlando, adding the funds it made to the making the dream a reality. She continued her barnstorming and did occasional parachute jumping.
But wherever Coleman performed, she would refuse if the audience was not desegregated and all entered through the same gates.
Plummeting to Her Death
But her dream would not be realized in her lifetime. On April 30, 1926, Coleman's plane went into an uncontrollable tailspin in preparation for an air show. Coleman was thrown from the plane at 500 feet and died upon hitting the ground.
It was later discovered that an errant wrench had slipped into the gearbox and jammed the gears. This caused the plane to spin out of control. More modern planes at that time had a covering over the gearbox to prevent this from happening. Coleman’s plane had no such gearbox cover.
Coleman's funeral in Jacksonville, Florida drew 5,000 mourners. On May 5 at Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church an estimated 10,000-15,000 people paid their respects to Queen Bess.
Lieutenant William J. Powell founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in 1929 and established the Bessie Coleman Flying School in Los Angeles, California. He also created Bessie Coleman Aero the nation's first black-owned airplane building company. Unfortunately, the business did not survive the Great Depression.
In 1995, Coleman's image was issued on a U.S. postage stamp and she was inducted into the Women in Aviation Hall of Fame. She was also inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame in November 2000.
The Bessie Coleman Foundation was established in 1995 by a group of African American female pilots and other African American aviation professionals and enthusiasts.
Sources:
Bessie Coleman Foundation
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