Reeve wrote a picture-book poem, NOBODY OWNS THE SKY. It is illustrated by Pamela Paparone. Published January 6, 1998 by Candlewick Press in Cambridge Massachusetts. Reeve says that Bessie never let her dream die and instead, became the first licensed African American aviator in the world. In her poem, NOBODY OWNS THE SKY, she wrote these words:
The air has no barrier, boundary, or wall.
The blue sky has room for us all.
Bessie’s life was not long, but she flew far and wide;
In Chicago, she showed off a Richthofen Glide.
But in Jacksonville, Florida, everyone cried,
“Farewell to Brave Bessie!” they sighed.
Other young men and women soon wanted to fly.
And the people said, “Why don’t you give it a try?”
The sky’s still big, and the sky’s still high,
But you’re bound to get there, by and by.
Just remember her words, ‘Til the day you die,
“Nobody Owns the Sky!”
Reeve Lindbergh dedicated her poem to the family of Bessie Coleman with admiration and respect from another flying family.
“It looks like a good day for flying.” “Miss Bessie Coleman (Queen Bess), the daredevil aviator accomplished her goal in her short life. She made a difference and she did “amount to something.”
Mae Jemison, M.D.
Photo compliments from Schomburg Center for Research in Black
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For this reason, he was an early advocate for desegregation of schools. In 1850, he was especially outspoken in New York. While the ratio of African American to white students there was one to forty African Americans received education funding at a ratio of only 1 to 1,600. This meant that the facilities and instruction for African American children were vastly inferior. Douglass criticized the situation and called for court action to open all schools to all children. He stated that inclusion within the educational system was a more pressing need for African Americans that political issues; such as