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The world's first African-American woman pilot
Bessie Coleman was born in Texas in 1892, she was the tenth child out of thirteen children. As a young girl during World War I, she became fascinated with flying and read all the books about aviation as she could. She started looking for a flying school but what she didn't realize was that she had two strikes against her: She was a woman and she was black. She heard that Europe had a more liberal attitude toward women and people of color so she learned to speak French and earned enough money to go to Paris to get her license.
She encountered many problems but would not let go of her dream and earned her license on June 15, 1921 from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale She returned to the U.S. and began teaching other black women to fly, giving lectures and performing at flying exhibitions. As she gained increasing fame as a barnstorming air circus performer in a war-surplus Jenny Trainer, she became known as "Queen Bessie." On April 30, 1926, while practicing for a show in Orlando, Florida, she was thrown from the plane and fell to her death.
~ Tributetoblackwomen.com 2006 ~ Website Design by LAS, USVI
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