You’ve heard of the Wright brothers, who were first to succeed in powered flight. You’ve heard of Louis Blériot, the first person to successfully fly the English Channel. You’ll also have heard the countless stories of the brave men who defied gravity in their aircraft time after time.
And yet, nestled within these heroic and awe-inspiring stories lies another, long-overlooked individual who faced up to the social constraints of the time and shattered them with an unwavering drive to succeed. It is the story of the first woman to receive a piloting license. The story of the first black person – male or female – to obtain an international piloting license.
This woman was Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Coleman.
Born in 1892, just 20 years after the abolition of slavery in the United States, Coleman dreamed of achieving what no woman before her had. Her battle to become an aviator ran parallel to the suffrage struggle within America and, to top it all off, deep in the heart of a time of segregation and suppression, her African American heritage bought a new level of difficulty to her dreams. Yet against all odds, Bessie succeeded.
When she was 23 years old, Elizabeth began…
