Jour: 12 juin 2026

In honor of the 125th anniversary of obtaining her pilot's license we present Bessie Coleman the first black woman and first Native American to earn a pilot’s license. Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas. The tenth of thirteen children, Coleman was born in a one-room cabin to parents of African American and Cherokee ancestry. Her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas when she was two and became sharecroppers. Coleman walked four miles each way to go to school. Her favorite subjects were reading and math. She spent one term at the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University before moving to Chicago  to stay with her brothers in 1915. There she worked as a manicurist. Her brothers served in the military during World War I and came home with stories of their time in France. Thrilled by stories of World War I pilots, Bessie dreamed of learning to fly. She got a second job managing a restaurant to raise money for flight schoo…