• PILOT
  
• FIRST Black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license
• Moved to Chicago after years of work as a laundress in the South
• Had to learn to fly in France because no American flying schools would accept a Black woman
• Learned stunt flying in Germany and the Netherlands, then returned to the United States to tour, drawing large crowds to watch her daredevil stunts
• REFUSED to perform in venues that used segregated entrances
• Encouraged Black women and children to become pilots by taking them on flights and speaking at schools
• Offered a role in a film, but turned it down when she learned her character was a slave
• While planning to open her own flight school, she died during a test flight
• Honored throughout Chicago: Bessie Coleman Drive at O'Hare Airport, Bessie Coleman Park, and annual Bessie Coleman celebrations

Photo: National Air and Space Museum (Great Images in NASA Description) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: Harrison, Vashti. Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Print.
Maggs, Sam. Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2016. Print.

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Support these organizations dedicated to preserving her story:

Official Website of Bessie Coleman
Bessie Coleman Aerospace Legacy

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