Bessie Coleman Biography Quotes 3 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family Background
Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, to Susan Coleman and George Coleman, one of many children in a family of modest means. Her parents worked hard to support their large household, and the family later settled in Waxahachie, Texas, where Bessie spent most of her childhood. Life in the segregated South shaped her early experiences: school terms were short and resources scarce, and children were expected to contribute to household and field work. When her father, who had African American and Native American ancestry, left Texas for Indian Territory seeking better prospects, Bessie remained with her mother and siblings. That early separation and the family's struggle for stability forged a resilience that would define her path.

Education and Migration
Bessie attended local segregated schools and showed determination to learn despite interruptions. As a young woman she enrolled at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma (now Langston University), but financial limitations forced her to leave after a single term. In 1915 she joined the Great Migration northward, moving to Chicago to live with relatives, including her brother John Coleman. She worked as a manicurist on the South Side and listened to stories from veterans returning from World War I. John, newly back from service in Europe, taunted her that French women were already flying airplanes, a remark that stung and inspired her in equal measure. The idea of becoming a pilot took hold, even as every American flight school she approached turned her away because she was a Black woman.

Path to the Skies
Bessie's ambition drew the attention of influential figures in Chicago's African American community. Robert S. Abbott, the pioneering founder of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her dream and used his newspaper to publicize it. With his support and help raising funds, and with assistance also linked to community businessmen such as banker Jesse Binga, she set out to do what was impossible at home: earn a pilot's license in France. She studied French, secured a passport, and sailed to Europe in 1920.

Training in France and Pilot Certification
In France, Coleman trained at a respected aviation school operated by the Caudron brothers at Le Crotoy. On June 15, 1921, she earned an international pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, becoming the first African American woman and the first Native American to hold such a credential. She stayed to practice advanced maneuvers, learning the aerobatic skills she would later display before American crowds. The achievement was historic not only for its firsts, but for how she secured it: by crossing an ocean to overcome barriers of race and gender that were immovable in the United States.

Barnstorming and Public Fame
Bessie returned to America in 1921 to significant media interest, amplified by Abbott's Defender and other newspapers eager to profile her as a symbol of modern possibility. She toured the country as a barnstormer, performing loops, figure eights, and other aerobatic feats at fairs and airfields. Audiences thrilled to her daring and to her story, and she soon took on the stage name "Queen Bess". She gave lectures between air shows, speaking about aviation's future and urging young Black Americans to see flight as a calling. Throughout, she charted a path not only for herself but for others, using her visibility to advocate for broader inclusion in the new age of flight.

Principles and Advocacy
Coleman used her celebrity to challenge Jim Crow practices. She refused to appear at events that enforced demeaning conditions, insisting, for example, that spectators be admitted through a single entrance rather than segregated gates. While she could not always force integrated seating, her public demands set a precedent and made headlines. She repeatedly announced her intention to open a school to train Black aviators, understanding that institutional access, not individual heroics, would determine lasting progress. She raised funds toward that goal and spoke tirelessly about aviation as a profession, a business, and a source of pride.

Setbacks and Perseverance
Barnstorming was dangerous work. In 1923, a mechanical failure during a show in California led to a crash that left Coleman injured, with a broken leg and other wounds. The accident grounded her for months and exhausted her limited finances. Yet she returned to the circuit once recovered, rebuilding her career through lectures and flying exhibitions across the Midwest and the South. She acquired and rented aircraft as needed, a constant logistical challenge for any barnstormer and doubly so for a Black woman in an industry dominated by men. Through it all she maintained a clear objective: to demonstrate competence, inspire new pilots, and raise capital for a flight school.

Final Flight and Passing
In the spring of 1926, Coleman traveled to Jacksonville, Florida, for a series of exhibitions. On April 30, during a test flight in preparation for a demonstration and planned parachute jump by another performer, she flew as an observer in the front cockpit while her mechanic and pilot, William Wills, handled the controls. Not wearing a safety belt so she could lean out and study the field below, Coleman was thrown from the aircraft when it suddenly went into a dive. She fell to her death, and Wills was killed when the plane crashed. Investigators reported finding a wrench in the wreckage that may have jammed the controls, underscoring the perilous conditions under which barnstormers worked.

Legacy and Influence
Bessie Coleman's funeral drew large crowds in Chicago, a testament to the impact she had made in only a few years. Her promises to open a school for Black pilots inspired others to carry the torch. William J. Powell, a Black aviator and advocate, founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles in 1929, explicitly linking its mission to her dream of training and promoting African American fliers. Over time her life became a touchstone for pilots who had been told there was no place for them in the cockpit. Honors followed: commemorations, scholarships, memorials, and dedicated days of remembrance. Street names, schools, and aviation clubs across the country bear her name, reflecting her role as a pioneer.

Enduring Significance
Coleman's story stands at the intersection of aviation's infancy and the long struggle for civil rights. Her mother, Susan, and brother John were central to the stubborn persistence that carried her from a Texas childhood to the airfields of Europe and back to American skies. The encouragement and platform provided by Robert S. Abbott, and the technical partnership and fatal final flight with William Wills, mark turning points in her journey. Through daring, discipline, and a strategic use of public attention, she bent a nascent industry toward inclusion. She did not live to see her school founded, but the pathway she opened made possible the training networks and cohorts of Black aviators who followed. In that sense, her license, earned across an ocean and at great personal risk, became a passport not only for herself but for generations who would learn to fly in her wake.

Our collection contains 3 quotes who is written by Bessie, under the main topics: Never Give Up - Equality.