Before Beyoncé stood in formation, there was another international sensation hailed as Queen B. Her death defying moves stole the show. At the infancy of aviation, Bessie Coleman was more than a daring pilot. Her no quit attitude and self determination to complete her goals were second to none.
Bessie’s strong character went beyond bravery. She broke barriers and encouraged others to follow in her footsteps. She taught other blacks to fly, allowing them to experience the freedom she experienced in the clouds. Queen B. dared to turn her dreams into reality. Her story is worthy to be told.
Bessie Coleman is a native black American civil aviator born on 26th January 1892 to a family of sharecroppers in Atlanta, Texas. She is the tenth child of sharecroppers George and Susan Coleman’s thirteen children. She was the first African-American woman to hold a pilot’s license, preceding the well-known Amelia Earhart.
“Because of Bessie Coleman”, wrote Powell in Black Wings 1934 dedicated to Coleman, “we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream”.
At the age of 24, Coleman moved from her Waxahachie,Texas hometown to Chicago, Illinois to seek better work opportunities. She first worked as a manicurist at a barber shop. Here, she began listening to and reading stories of World War I pilots, which sparked her interest in aviation. To pursue her newly found passion, Coleman took a second job at a chili parlor in order to raise enough funds to finance her Aviation School education.
Bessie Coleman is one of the black girls who grew up at the time when the U.S aviation schools neither accepted women nor blacks. These two reasons explains her enrollment and acceptance into the prestigious Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Coleman earned her license in just seven months having learnt to speak French from French-language class at the Berlitz School in Chicago. She was the first American of any race or gender to be directly awarded credentials to pilot an airplane license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. Coleman specialized in stunt flying and parachuting. Coleman earned a living barnstorming and performing aerial tricks. Her license to fly wouldn’t have been possible but for her excellent display of competence and high skills sets. Including her skills of life-saving maneuvers and turning off the engine before touching down.
Upon her return to the U. S., she still faced discrimination. According to the Chicago Defender newspaper, Coleman found work barnstorming, even when very few American women of any race had pilot’s licenses by 1918. Bessie Coleman had an unfulfilled dream of an aviation school for future black pilots. A dream later realized by Lieutenant William J. Powell when he established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles in 1929.
On celebration of the Labor Day in 1931, the flying clubs sponsored the first all-black air show in America; an event that attracted 15,000 spectators. “Because of Bessie Coleman”, wrote Powell in Black Wings 1934 dedicated to Coleman, “we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream”. Powell served in a segregated unit during World War I, and tirelessly promoted the cause of black aviation through his book, his journals, and the Bessie Coleman Aero Club.