Who is Bessie Coleman

Elizabeth 'Bessie' Coleman (January 26, 1892 - April 30, 1926), popularly known as "Queen Bess," was the first African American woman to become an airplane pilot, and the first American woman to hold an international pilot license.

Born in January 26,1926 Atlanta, Texas, Coleman was the tenth of thirteen children. Her father, George Coleman, was of part Cherokee ancestry. Her parents were sharecroppers yet her early childhood was a happy one, spent playing in the front yard or on the porch. Sunday mornings and afternoons were spent at church. As the other children began to age and find work in the fields, Coleman assumed responsibilities around the house. She looked after her sisters, helped her mother, Susan Coleman, work in her garden, and performed many of the everyday chores of running the house.

Coleman began school at the age of six and had to walk four miles each day to her all-black, one-room school. Despite sometimes lacking such materials as chalk and pencils Bessie was an excellent student. She loved to read and established herself as an outstanding math student. Bessie completed all eight grades of her one-room school. Every year Coleman's routine of school, chores, and church was interrupted by the cotton harvest. Each man, woman, and child was needed to pick the cotton, so the Coleman family worked together in the fields during the harvest.

In 1901, Bessie Coleman's life took a dramatic turn. George Coleman left his family. He had become fed up with the racial barriers that existed in Texas. He returned to Oklahoma, or Indian Territory as it was then called, to find better opportunities, but Susan and the children did not go with him.

At the age of twelve Bessie was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church. When she turned eighteen Coleman took all of her savings and enrolled in the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now called Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. Bessie completed only one term before she ran out of money and was forced to return home. Coleman knew there was no future for her in her home town, so she went to live with two of her brothers in Chicago while she looked for work. For more, see Wikipedia, Bessie Coleman.

• Bessie Coleman official website Atlanta Historical Museum
• Black Wings: Online Biography
• Bessie Coleman Action Figure
• PBS, The American Experience: Bessie Coleman
• Find-A-Grave profile for Bessie Coleman
• Bessie Coleman Historical Marker

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