How one woman's refusal to accept "no" changed aviation history
Cover photo: Bessie Coleman, about 1922. Dove & Porter. UCLA Library, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, public domain
In 1920, flight school after flight school in America turned Bessie Coleman away because of her race and her gender. She didn't accept it. She learned French, saved every penny from her work as a manicurist in Chicago, and boarded a ship to France, where she became the first Black woman, and the first Native American woman, to earn an international pilot's license.
How did Bessie Coleman become a pilot? Refused by every American flight school, she learned French in Chicago, sailed to France in November 1920 and trained at the Caudron Brothers' school in Le Crotoy. On June 15, 1921, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale issued her an international pilot's license, a first for a Black woman.
Key facts
- Born: 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, to a family of sharecroppers.
- Training: the Caudron Brothers' flight school in Le Crotoy, on the northern French coast.
- License: June 15, 1921, from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
- Career: barnstormer and stunt pilot who refused to perform where Black spectators couldn't use the same gates.
- Honors: a US postage stamp in 1995 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2006.
In an era of violent segregation, when women had only just won the vote, Bessie Coleman looked at the sky and claimed it.
The Road to the Skies
Bessie Coleman was born in 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, to a family of sharecroppers. Her mother, an African American woman, raised thirteen children to believe in education despite the barriers. When Bessie's father left to return to Oklahoma, where Native Americans had more rights, her mother became the family's sole provider.
Young Bessie walked four miles to her one-room segregated school. She was known for her math skills and for her ability to organize and lead, traits that served her well when she set out to do the impossible.
After hearing stories from pilots coming home from World War I, Coleman fell in love with flight. But every flight school in America refused her. Robert S. Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender, one of the most influential Black newspapers of the time, suggested she go to France, a country more accepting of Black Americans and of women.
France, Fluency and Freedom
Coleman learned French at the Berlitz language school in Chicago while working two jobs to save for the trip. In November 1920 she sailed for France and trained at the Caudron Brothers' flight school in Le Crotoy, on the northern French coast.
Seven months later, on June 15, 1921, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) issued her an international pilot's license. She learned to fly in a Nieuport 82, a plane known for being hard to control, with a history of fatal crashes. She mastered it and came home a certified aviator. Today our France trip travels through the country that said yes when America said no.
The Barnstormer Who Refused to Compromise
Photo: Unknown photographer, 1922. UCLA Library, Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection, public domain
Back in the United States, Coleman became a barnstormer, a stunt pilot performing aerial tricks at air shows. Her shows drew huge crowds, Black and white. She was known for wing walking, figure eights and daring dives that left audiences breathless.
She used that platform for more than entertainment. She refused to perform at any venue that wouldn't let Black Americans in through the same gates as white spectators. At a show in Texas she negotiated a single entrance for everyone, a small but real victory in the Jim Crow South.
A Legacy Cut Short
On April 30, 1926, during a rehearsal flight in Jacksonville, Florida, Coleman's plane malfunctioned. She was thrown from the aircraft at about 2,000 feet and died at 34. She wasn't wearing a seatbelt because she needed to lean over the cockpit to scout the landing area for a planned parachute jump.
Her mechanic, William Wills, was also killed when the plane crashed. The investigation found that a wrench had slid into the engine and jammed the controls.
The Door She Opened
Bessie Coleman never got to open the flight school she dreamed of, one that would train Black aviators of any gender. But the door she opened has never closed:
- 1995: The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor
- 2006: She was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame
Every Black woman who flies today, whether in an airline cockpit or a spacecraft, walks through the door Bessie Coleman opened. Dr. Mae Jemison even carried a photo of her into orbit. Read Mae Jemison's story, and meet the woman who carried Bessie's work forward, Willa Brown, who trained the Tuskegee Airmen.
What Bessie Teaches Us About Travel
Photo: Jerry Zhang / Unsplash
The world belongs to those who refuse to accept limits. Bessie didn't wait for permission, and she didn't let a language barrier or systemic racism stop her. She learned French, crossed an ocean and came home a pilot.
That's the energy we bring to every trip at Caviar in the Air. We don't wait for the world to make space for us. We take our seat among the clouds, because we belong there.
Inspired by pioneers like Bessie Coleman, we design trips that honor the women who traveled before us. Learn more about Bessie Coleman and other Black history pioneers, then explore our upcoming trips.
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