As we all know, history is full of plenty of rags to riches stories. That's just sort of how America is. And among one of the greatest of these stories is Bessie Coleman. What a beast.The story starts out in Texas, when a part-African-American-part-Native-American guy and his black wife loved each other very much... and made thirteen babies! Bessie Coleman was the tenth, born in 1892 or 1896, depending on who your source is. In 1901 her daddy got tired of all the racism in Texas and hightailed it to an Indian Reservation, leaving Mrs. Coleman-lady to fend for herself and her young children. Ouch, dude.So all of the Colemans started working, except for the dad of course because he was probably off in a hammock somewhere sipping ice cold lemonade, in a cotton field. Bessie's mama realized her daughter was pretty darn brilliant and sent her off to school, where Bessie over achieved like no other. She loved reading. After high school, she saved up all of her moneys and enrolled into the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma. There she read even more books, including several about the Wright brothers and a woman pilot named Harriet Quimby.Believe it or not, though there was a woman pilot, she was pretty much the only one. Back in the early 1900's, ladies weren't exactly respected. Especially in the air. And African Americans had it even worse. The odds were stacked against this young lady who just wanted to be awesome and make a name for herself. Moral of the story: America was just the wrong place and wrong time for Bessie.So Bessie headed off to France! Where everything was better I guess. She studied the French language in a class in Chicago and then jetted across 'the pond'. She studied aeronautics and piloting at Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudon at Le Crotoy. It was supposed to be a ten-month course but she finished it in seven. Like I said, she was pretty darn brilliant. She received her pilot's license in 1921, making her twenty five or twenty nine years old, depending on your source. Bessie was not the first black woman (or even the only woman in her class) to receive a license there, but she was the first American to obtain her pilot's license from the French school. And she was the first licensed black pilot in the U.S.
Bessie received a lot of press when she got back from France. I guess people found her interesting. I wonder why? She did a lot of stunt shows and wowed people with her wicked skills. In 1923, Bessie's plane stalled and crashed. She broke her leg and recuperated for the next several months. These next several months she toured YMCAs and gave speeches about following your dreams and revealed her goal of opening a pilot training school for African Americans in the United States.Finally she recovered, and in 1925 she started doing performances regularly in Texas. In each of her shows she insisted on a non-segregated crowd. In early 1926, she began performing in Florida and got a new plane. On April 30 she was flying with her mechanic and her seat belt unbuckled. The plane malfunctioned and flipped, causing Bessie to fall 1500 feet to her death and breaking every bone in her body. Really. This is one blog where I'm not making up my subject's death.
Millions mourned, and funerals were held cross-country. Though in 1929, her piloting school opened and fulfilled her lifelong aspiration. Though she did not live to see the impact her life made, many felt the repercussions. She was a beast of a lady who never let go of her dreams. And even today she reminds us of a cardinal rule. Always buckle your seat belt.
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