Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman, 1892-1926 born: Atlanta, Texas
Bessie, also known affectionately as Queen Bess, was the world’s first licensed black aviator. She
was the first African-American woman to fly an airplane. Born in Texas, Bessie moved to Chicago
to earn money to learn to fly. There she met and came to revere Robert Abbott, publisher of the
Chicago Defender, the African-American newspaper that would play a prominent role in the lives of
other aspiring black aviators.
After learning that France was enlightened in matters of race and gender, Bessie learned the
French language, moved to France, and received flight training from the famed flight school
established in 1910 by the Caudron brothers. In 1921, two years before Amelia Earhart earned
her pilot’s license, Bessie became the first African-American woman to earn the international
pilot's license.
She returned to Chicago, saying, “I decided blacks should not experience the difficulties I had
faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly.”
To finance her flight school, she turned to lecturing across America and to barnstorming, a
popular entertainment in which pilots performed aerial stunts. In 1926, while practicing for an air
show in Florida, Bessie’s plane malfunctioned, and she fell from the open cockpit to her death,
unable to fulfill her dream of a flight school.
Bessie is honored in the "American Blacks in Aviation" exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC.
Bessie, also known affectionately as Queen Bess, was the world’s first licensed black aviator. She
was the first African-American woman to fly an airplane. Born in Texas, Bessie moved to Chicago
to earn money to learn to fly. There she met and came to revere Robert Abbott, publisher of the
Chicago Defender, the African-American newspaper that would play a prominent role in the lives of
other aspiring black aviators.
After learning that France was enlightened in matters of race and gender, Bessie learned the
French language, moved to France, and received flight training from the famed flight school
established in 1910 by the Caudron brothers. In 1921, two years before Amelia Earhart earned
her pilot’s license, Bessie became the first African-American woman to earn the international
pilot's license.
She returned to Chicago, saying, “I decided blacks should not experience the difficulties I had
faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly.”
To finance her flight school, she turned to lecturing across America and to barnstorming, a
popular entertainment in which pilots performed aerial stunts. In 1926, while practicing for an air
show in Florida, Bessie’s plane malfunctioned, and she fell from the open cockpit to her death,
unable to fulfill her dream of a flight school.
Bessie is honored in the "American Blacks in Aviation" exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC.
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