A truly influential person doesn’t stop being so when they die. Their life turns into a legacy, and that legacy lives on for ages. Bessie Coleman was one of those influential people. Even though she died in 1926, she's an inspiration to women and people of color everywhere. Defying odds as she went, Bessie followed her passions wherever they took her, whether it be to Europe, or Texas, or even thousands of feet above the ground.
Born in 1892, Bessie’s life in Waxahachie, Texas was a segregated one. Segregation played a huge role in her life, and inspired many of the actions she took in adulthood. Fed up with segregated life, her father left their family behind, to live on an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. Bessie and her twelve siblings went to school part of the year, but the African American school shut down during the harvest season, so that kids were able to pick cotton. Bessie’s now single mother, Susan, was busy raising thirteen children, and maintaining a steady income, so Bessie often sacrificed her own freetime and education to take care of her siblings. This made her into a hard-working woman, whose persistence would take her as far as her ambitions allowed.
Forced into dropping out of college, due to high tuition and insufficient funds, Bessie moved to Chicago with her brothers. After WWI her brothers, both veterans of the war, came home and told her stories of what they had seen. Bessie was particularly enthralled with the stories involving planes. And so began her infatuation with aviation. Being an African American didn’t offer a lot for her in her own country; no flight school in the U.S. would accept a black person - let alone a black woman - into their programs. But this didn’t hinder Bessie’s persistence, rather, it only made her extend her horizons overseas.
After ten months of training in France, Bessie earned the first pilot’s license ever issued to a person of color. But she didn’t stop there. She trained for another six months in Germany, then in Holland, then in England. A Chicago newspaper proudly wrote, “Now Chicago has produced our first negro girl Aviator and Bessie Coleman who is abroad at present receiving additional training in France, Holland, and England where she has given many demonstrations of skill.” She even turned down an offer to teach aviation in Moscow. She broke glass ceiling after glass ceiling, becoming a global advocate for women, and people of color.
Breaking racial prejudice and sexism into pieces, Bessie Coleman came back to the U.S. and entertained people of all colors and genders. She flew in several states, showcasing her skills with tricks, like barrel rolls, wing walks, and figure eights. It was a few years before she decided to fly in her home state, still segregated. Eventually, Bessie returned to Waxahachie, Texas, to perform, but, “refused to give an exhibition on White school grounds unless Blacks were permitted to use the same entrance as Whites. The request was granted, although Blacks and Whites remained segregated once inside.”
Becoming a pilot was her dream. She fulfilled her dream, but this wasn’t her only one. “I like flying,” she said, “and I am going into the business. I shall start a pilot's school in Chicago.” But this was a dream Bessie wouldn’t see through. On May 1, 1926, Bessie flew around Jacksonville, Florida, with her mechanic acting as pilot while Bessie, in the passenger’s seat, looked for places to parachute, for her show the following day. But something was wrong with the mechanics of the plane. Later investigations discovered a rogue wrench that caused the tragic event. There was something wrong with the plane, and witnesses watched it nose dive, down toward the ground.
“Bessie Coleman, aviatrix, killed in plane accident Jacksonville, Fla., May 6th. - Bessie Coleman, the only colored woman Aviator, was killed here Friday while piloting an airplane and a practice flight. William Dee Wills, 24 of Dallas, Tex., a white man, who is handling publicity for an exhibition the woman was to have given here Saturday also lost his life when the plane turned over and fell two thousand feet. The woman tumbled out but Willis fell with the plane.” Shortly thereafter, a man who had accompanied them on the field struck a match to light a cigarette, shortly after the plane fell, and the gasoline ignited, consuming Will's body.
After her death, Bessie’s body was placed on a train that traveled from Orlando to Chicago. Thousands of people paid their respects as the train passed by. Though she didn't live long enough to see it, her dream of opening a flight school was fulfilled three years after her death. Only thirty-seven when she died, Bessie inspired an endless number of people, and broke down so many barriers. She wasn’t just a pilot; Bessie Coleman was an amazing advocate for women and African Americans.
RESEARCH TIME: Okay, do you want to be a first to do something in history? Maybe a world record holder? What would it be? There have been millions of firsts but one for each skill. What would you like to do when you grow up? Find someone that was the first to do something related and tell us about them. What set them apart from the rest and how will you be the first to do something similar?
2. Associated Negro Press 1922
3. Roni Morales, “Coleman, Bessie,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed January 27, 2021, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/coleman-bessie. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
4. Associated Negro Press 1922
5. Preston News Service 1926, 1
6. Preston News Service 1926, 1