Bessie Coleman

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Bessie Coleman Script Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta Texas. Atlanta Texas was a very poor city, and it had a lot of discrimination within it. Her parents were Susan and George Coleman and she was the tenth of thirteen children. She started school at the age of six and had to walk four miles to school every day. Coleman was a gifted child, each night she would read a story book that she borrowed from the library to her family. At the age of eight she worked as a family bookkeeper. When she grew up she longed to be a pilot but it was very challenging for an African America women to become one. Once Coleman was old enough she moved to Chicago with her two brothers. While in Chicago she got a job as a manicurist in the White Sox Barbershop. She was honored as the best and fastest manicurist in the area. Coleman wanted to become a pilot so bad, she finally decided that she was going to go to France and learn how because discrimination was not a problem there. But before she could she had to learn how to speak French at a local language school. After learning the language as best as she could, she left for France in November of 1920. While in France it took Bessie Coleman seven months to learn how to fly and get her pilots license. She was given her license on June 15, 1921 by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. After receiving her license, she returned to the United States in September of 1921. When she arrived she was addressed by the press. Many people were interested in seeing the first African American women to fly a plane. She was invited as a guest of honor to attend the all black musical “shuffle along.” This is the point in her life when she started to become more and more famous. After a few months Coleman decided that she wanted to return to France to become an entertainment aviator. She stayed in France for six more months before returning home again. On September 3, 1922, she did her fist entertainment performance. She had also started a movie career, but it was quickly ended when the movie was about an ignorant black country girl who moves to the big city. Coleman rejected this part because she felt the role was “demeaning to women.” She also gave flying lessons to an advertising executive who had made a deal to buy her an airplane if she would airdrop ad leaflets. William Wills was Bessie Coleman’s mechanic- pilot. One day when they were preparing for an airshow the pilot lost control and the plane plummeted to the ground. Coleman was not wearing her seatbelt and fell 1,500 feet to the ground and died. She died on April 30, 1926 in Jacksonville Florida. Bessie Coleman is still honored today. In 1977 some African American women created the Bessie Coleman aviators club. This club was to honor Bessie for becoming the first African American women to become a pilot.