![]() ![]() She received her international pilot’s license on Jfrom the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Finally, Coleman was accepted at the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. Since her application to flight schools needed to be written in French, she began taking French classes at night. Robert Abbot, a famous African American newspaper publisher told her to move to France where she could learn how to fly. She applied to many flight schools across the country, but no school would take her because she was both African American and a woman. Her brother's stories, along with other news of pilots in the war, inspired her to become a pilot. Her brother John teased her because French women were allowed to learn how to fly airplanes and, in the United States, Coleman could not. Meanwhile, her brothers served in the military during World War I and came home with stories of their time in France. She went to the Burnham School of Beauty Culture in 1915 and became a manicurist in a local barbershop. She dropped out of college after only one semester because she could no longer afford tuition.Īt age 23, Coleman went to live with her brothers in Chicago. By the time she was eighteen, she saved enough money to attend the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. Coleman grew up helping her mother pick cotton and wash laundry to earn extra money. Instead, Coleman, her mother, and siblings stayed in Waxahachie, Texas. Coleman’s mother decided not to go with him. In 1901, her father decided to move back to Oklahoma to try to escape discrimination. Her mother, Susan Coleman, was an African American maid, and her father George Coleman was a sharecropper of mixed Native American and African American descent. Though her life and career were cut short in a tragic plane crash, her life and legacy continue to inspire people around the world.īorn in Atlanta, Texas on January 26, 1892, Bessie Coleman had twelve brothers and sisters. Known for performing flying tricks, Coleman’s nicknames were: “Brave Bessie,” “Queen Bess,” and “The Only Race Aviatrix in the World.” Her goal was to encourage women and African Americans to reach their dreams – and this became her legacy. Bessie Coleman soared across the sky as the first woman of African American and Native American descent to earn her pilot’s license in the U.S. ![]()
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