Aviator School

Coleman's aviator license.  Photo courtesy of: ALLSTAR Newtork

After putting much thought into her brother's comment about French women flying airplanes, Coleman began to think about women aviators such as Harriet Quimby, and African-American aviators such as Eugene Bullard.  However, when she realized that she had never heard of any African-American female aviators, she decided to become the first.         Coleman worked at a barbershop in Chicago, and came in contact with Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870-1940), the influential editor of an African-American weekly newspaper called the Chicago Defender.  After explaining her dream to Abbott, he said that he was interested in "uplifting the Race" and agreed to help Coleman.  After Abbott located a French school where Bessie could learn to fly, she learned some fluency in the French language, and started saving her money.         In December of 1920, Coleman started her flying education at the Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron in LeCrotoy, France.  On June 15, 1921, Coleman, then twenty-nine years old, earned her license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, and became the first African-American woman in the world to earn her pilot's license. (1)

(1) Jacqueline McLean, Women With Wings (Minneapolis: The Oliver Press, Inc., 2001), 39-40.

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