Bessie Coleman Essay

Bessie Coleman flew across the horizon, above gender and racial prejudice by defying all odds and becoming the first African-American pilot in America. Coleman was born on January 26th, 1892. Coleman’s mother was African-American and her father was of Native American and African-American descent. She grew up in a time where nearly everything in America was racially segregated and women were not highly esteemed. As Coleman got older, she realized that what she wanted to do with her life was become a pilot, but the only place she would be allowed to do this was France. So, with a lot of perseverance and grit, Coleman was able to acquire a pilot’s license in France and become the first ever Native American and African-American woman to have a

Coleman knew that she wanted to be a pilot, but wouldn’t be able to pursue that dream in America, so, “She took a second job in order to save money quickly so that she could pursue her dream to be a pilot, but at that time American flight schools did not admit either blacks or women” (Lauria-Blum). Because she knew she wouldn’t be able to obtain a pilot’s license in the United States, she had to work extremely hard to save money to travel to France where women could be accepted into flight school. At the time, France was the only place where women could go to flight school and be taken seriously. For Coleman, money wasn’t the only struggle she had to overcome to make it to flight school: “Undaunted, she learned French and in 1920 was accepted at the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France” (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). Aside from having to save up enough money to travel to France, she also had to spend a lot of her time learning French so she could communicate in France and submit her college essay in French. If she had been allowed to attend aviation school in America, learning a language was not something that she would have had to pursue. Coleman had also gained a great deal of fame throughout the time she spent flying in America, so, “She also used her fame to fight racism and segregation, refusing to fly in shows that forced Black and white spectators to enter through separate gates” (St. Fleur). Although there were a lot of venues that requested Bessie Coleman to fly for them, she chose to turn down a lot of them because they endorsed segregation. This is unfortunate because a lot of other performers at the time weren’t like Bessie and didn’t see the need to stand up for women’s and civil rights, therefore she had a lot of missed opportunities that other people got to