Bessie Coleman

Bessie Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) was an American aviator and the first Black woman to hold a pilot's license. Born in Atlanta, Texas, to a poor family, Coleman worked as a manicurist before developing her ambition to fly. Facing discrimination from American flight schools that refused to teach Black women, she learned French and traveled to France to attend flight school at Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1921. She received her pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921, becoming the first Black woman and first Indigenous woman to hold an international pilot's license. Her dream was to establish a flight school for Black Americans, but her life was cut short when she died in a plane crash at age 34. Though her life was brief, Coleman's pioneering spirit and determination to overcome systemic racism and sexism made her an enduring symbol of courage and breaking barriers in aviation and beyond.