Soaring High with Bessie Coleman

Soaring High with Bessie Coleman

By: Cherie Burke, 4th period Current Events

That day, the world lost a young and wonderful pilot who demonstrated that anyone, regardless of gender or race, could achieve greatness; to this day, Bessie Coleman is still remembered as the brave young woman who, despite possessing African-American and Native-American blood, overcame the obstacles in her way and made history in the world of not only aviation, but the world in general.

However, tragedy struck the day before one of her air shows as, during her rehearsal for the event in Jacksonville, Florida, an unsecured wrench worked its way into the control gears of the plane and caused the craft to plummet at 3,500 feet, resulting in her death as she wasn't wearing a seat belt. She was 34 years old.

After teaching herself French at a Berlitz school in Chicago, she went off to France and enrolled into the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, where she was the only student of color.

But, as the aviation schools of the United States refused to let both African-Americans and women into the program, she ventured overseas to France so she could attain her dream.

Having been accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church School on a scholarship at the age of twelve, she completed her education with ease and, at the age of eighteen, took her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now known as Langston University) where she only completed one term as a result of financial restriction.

At 23 years old, Bessie Coleman moved with some of her brothers to Chicago, Illinois and worked as a manicurist, where she began to hear stories of World War I pilots soaring through the skies, such tales provoking her interest in the field of aviation to the point of her taking up a second job at a chili parlor to try earning money to fund her piloting education.

Despite being taught in a 27-foot biplane that was known to fail frequently, sometimes mid-flight, she was awarded an international piloting license in June of 1921 and returned to the U.S in September, only to be greeted by reporters who referred to her as "a full-fledged aviatrix, the first of her race."

Despite her having to help with chores and harvesting cotton considering her father left when she was two years old, Bessie walked four miles every day to reach her segregated, one-room school where she excelled at mathematics and loved to read.

Bessie Coleman's story began on January 26th, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, when she was born as the tenth of thirteen children to her parents George and Susan Coleman.

Coleman performed countless stunts of aerial-acrobatics over the next five years, her first event that took place in Long Island bringing about 30,000 spectators to view her talent in action. Alongside proving to the U.S that African-Americans (and women, no less) were fully capable of becoming pilots, she also advocated for African-Americans to pursue the field of aviation to the point of her refusing to perform at locations that didn't allow members of her race to enter.

Her popularity skyrocketed so highly after her public debut that she was invited as a guest of honor to attend the all-black musical, 'Shuffle Along', where the entire audience, including several hundred white Americans, gave her a standing ovation to commemorate her achievement.

http://www.biography.com/people/bessie-coleman-36928

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/peopleevents/pandeAMEX02.html

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Co-Da/Coleman-Bessie.html

http://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/coleman-bessie/

http://www.bessiecoleman.org/bio-bessie-coleman.php