Feeling Rebloggy
Bessie Coleman was born January 26, 1893, in Atlanta, Texas, one of thirteen children... Just a few years later, December 1903, the Wright Brothers made the first sustained flight in a heavier-than-air vehicle at Kitty Hawk. Poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar was their friend and classmate. Their flight was to be a pivotal event in Coleman's life. Because she was born with a drive to better herself, Coleman was an avid reader. Her mother ensured that the Coleman children made good use of the traveling library that came through two or three times a year. Perhaps one of the books that inspired Coleman was “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, written in 1900 by Frank Baum.
...In the summer of 1919, Chicago was pounded by the worst race riot in history.
A black youth on a homemade raft drifted into an area of Lake Michigan used by whites. He fell into the water and drowned after being stoned by the whites. That same night, Chicago became the Wild West with black and whites fighting in the streets with guns and knives. It carried into the next day, when a gang of whites drug blacks off the streetcar and beat them.
It took four days and the National Guard to restore order to the Chicago. Although Coleman and her family were unscathed, around her, there were 38 dead, 537 injured and over 1,000 people homeless.
Like Dorothy in Oz, Coleman had traveled the “yellow brick road” - a road that was full of conflict and difficulties. She established herself in Chicago, learned a trade, found a place to live, witnessed her brothers go to war overseas and then survived a race riot. Yet, she was unwavering in her quest to move forward, and she was firm about fighting against what she believed were the evils of racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance.
When pilots began to make headlines and pictures of WWI airplanes appeared regularly in magazines, Bessie toyed with the idea of flying as a way out for her and others like her. But when her brother John teasingly told her; “You n***er women ain’t never goin’ to fly, Not like those women I saw in France ” - she smiled at him and said; “That’s it - You just called it for me.
The captive audience at the barbershop witnessed that moment in time when Bessie Coleman decided to learn to fly.So Coleman applied to almost every American flying school, but was quickly turned down. There were, of course, two reasons why Coleman couldn't find anyone to teach her to fly. Her brown skin was an obvious reason and her sex was another. The doors to the open skies over America were closed to young Bessie Coleman. But France was so different...
It is important to note that the “Tulsa Race Riot” took place on June 1, 1921.
According to Bieke Gils, “this incident greatly affected and shaped African American’s perceptions of aviation.” After an unresolved lynching incident, six white pilots dropped bombs on the wealthy black Greenwood district of Tulsa, setting fire to the town and killing 75 Tulsans, two-thirds of whom were black.
It was the first time in history that airplanes were used to attack an American community and this community was black. Marcus Garvey encouraged African Americans to become involved in aviation and to secure as many airplanes as possible in anticipation of a catastrophic race war. And most black newspapers promoted aviation in an effort to dispel stereotypes about African Americans being less intelligent, incompetent and lazy. Bessie Coleman was doing what everyone was talking about.
After seven months of stringent training, and two weeks after the Tulsa Race Riot, Coleman was declared to be a qualified aviator on June 15, 1921, when she received her international pilot’s license No. 18.310. She was the first American of any race or gender to be directly awarded credential’s to pilot an airplane license from the Federation Aeronitique Internationale in France. To receive this license, she had to demonstrate high skill sets comprised of life-saving maneuvers including turning off the engine before touching down... Bessie Coleman’s flight exhibitions were successful because she appealed to both black and white audiences. White audiences saw her as an attractive, petite uniqueness - a tiny beautiful woman piloting an airplane. Black audiences took pride in her courage as she symbolized hope that the African American community could participate in the skies [and she flat refused to perform in front where blacks were not allowed to enter]* * * * *
HOLLYWOOD
* * * * *...[It] was announced that she had agreed to star in a film “Shadow and Sunshine” to be produced by an African American-owned film company - Seminole. However, she failed to show up for the filming because she felt it degraded her race. She had gladly accepted the role hoping it would help advance her career and provide her with money to establish her own flying school. But when she learned the first scene required her to wear tattered clothes, with a walking stick and a pack on her back, she refused to proceed....Doris Rich, in her book on Bessie, said "as an aviator she was a threat to whites who cherished their racial superiority, and as a woman pilot she threatened the ego of black males." Queen Bess - Daredevil Aviatrix was a true champion of her race. She refused to appear in any air show that did not allow blacks to attend. Her motto was "No Uncle Tom stuff for me." She was determined to bolster black pride and refused to promote the stereotypical, derogatory image most whites had of blacks.
She especially appealed to African American women to take in interest in aviation and she began to lecture more with her 2,000 feet of film of her performances in Europe and the US. Besides, lectures brought in more income that would bring her closer to her dream of a flight school. But she never charged any admission to students - she knew that they were her inspiration to become future pilots...
http://www.bessiecoleman.org/bio-bessie-coleman.php (No Link: Not A Secure Site)
[Queen Bess wound up going to Europe more than once to hone her skills when she was not allowed into schools in the United States due to being black and/or female. ] In 1925, she moved to Houston and performed throughout the South, drawing multicultural crowds. She had nearly reached her goal of opening a school, when on April 30, 1926, she went up for a practice flight for a May Day celebration in Jacksonville, Fla. About 10 minutes into the flight, the Curtiss Jenny biplane, piloted by her mechanic and publicity agent, William Will, went into a nosedive and flipped.
https://insider.si.edu/2018/02/bessie-coleman-first-black-aviator/
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