Bessie Coleman became the world’s first Black female aviator and the first Native American woman to earn a pilot’s license—two years before the more famous Amelia Earhart. Coleman accomplished these firsts by learning French and moving to France where she could study aviation, because no United States instructor would teach a Black or a woman, much less a Black woman.

Coleman was born in 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children, to sharecropper parents. She excelled in school—especially math, graduated high school, obtained some teacher college training, and moved to Chicago in 1915. There, she was mentored by two philanthropists—Robert S. Abbot, who encouraged her to study abroad, and Jesse Binga who gave her a scholarship to do so. Coleman earned her pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1921.

Back in the States, Bessie Coleman became a barnstormer—an aerial exhibition stunt flier who performs dangerous tricks for paying audiences. She made her American airshow debut in 1922, billed as “the world’s greatest woman flier.” Coleman had a strong understanding of what it took to stand out in aviation, and created her own hype as Queen Bess: dressing well, cultivating a sophisticated persona in the press, and performing amazing daredevil maneuvers in the sky that enthralled audiences on the ground.

Coleman’s greatest dream was to open a flight school for African Americans in the United States, with a focus on encouraging black women and children into aviation. She planned for her barnstorming proceeds to fund this endeavor, along with her speaking engagements across the country. But her dream was dashed in the spring of 1926 during her final flight in Florida.

Bessie was to be the main attraction at the Black County Fair. The show would also include a woman parachuter to jump from Coleman’s plane. To scout for good jump locations, Bessie went up as a passenger in her plane. Because of her diminutive height, she couldn’t scan the ground’s terrain while wearing a seatbelt, so she left it unbuckled. The flight was routine until a malfunction occurred in the controls, causing the pilot to lose control of the plane. It flipped, sending Coleman plummeting 500 feet to her death.

Bessie Coleman’s widespread notoriety and tragic death brought legendary fame, with the Black press mourning her loss in numerous articles and eulogies. Her legacy far outlived her short life. And though she never achieved her dream of opening an aviation school, others picked up the mantle.

Biography provided by The Museum of Flight