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From an early age, Bessie Coleman dreamed of flying, but racial bigotry and gender bias threatened to keep her grounded. Denied entrance to flight training school in the United States, Coleman went to Europe. She returned, triumphant, with a pilot's license and hopes of opening a flight school for African Americans. Author Connie Plantz captures all the tension and excitement of Coleman's soaring achievements. Raising funds as a stunt pilot, "Brave Bessie" thrilled her audiences with aerial tricks. Coleman's life ended in a tragic accident, but not before her dream of flight made aviation history.
Black Wings, published in 1934 during the Great Depression, is the autobiography of black aviation pioneer, engineer, and entrepreneur William Powell. In 1917 he enlisted in officer training school and served in a segregated unit during World War I. During the war Powell was gassed by the enemy, and he suffered health problems throughout his life from this poison gas attack. After the war Powell opened service stations in Chicago. He became interested in aviation, but the only school that would train him was located in Los Angeles. He sold his businesses in Chicago and moved to the West Coast. After receiving his pilot's license in 1932, Powell set out to motivate other African Americans to pursue a career in aviation. Powell eventually opened an all-black flight school, produced a movie, published monthly journals, offered scholarships to young African Americans, and founded the first African American owned airplane manufacturer. Powell died in 1942.
Colin Powell once observed that "a dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work." This sentiment is mirrored dramatically in the story of African Americans in aerospace history. The invention of the airplane in the first decade of the twentieth century sparked a revolution in modern technology. Aviation in the popular mind became associated with adventure and heroism. For African Americans, however, this new realm of human flight remained off-limits, a consequence of racial discrimination. Many African Americans displayed a keen interest in the new air age, but found themselves routinely barred from gaining training as pilots or mechanics. Beginnin...
Here is the brief but intense life of Bessie Coleman, America's first African American woman aviator. Born in 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, she became known as “Queen Bess,” a barnstormer and flying-circus performer who defied the strictures of race, sex, and society in pursuit of a dream.
It was 1964 and black men didn't fly commercial jets. But David Harris was about to change that...
A Pair of Wings is a novel based on the life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman. Arriving in Chicago in 1915 from Waxahachie, Texas, Coleman is among the first wave of African Americans to take part in the Great Migration, the largest movement of Black people fleeing the oppression of the agricultural South for greater freedom and the promise of jobs in the industrialized North. Because no one in the United States will teach an African American woman to fly, Coleman learns to speak French and travels to France where she learns from some of the best flyers and designers of Great War aeroplanes. After her initial training she is awarded the French civilian aeronautic brevet, which entitles her...
Inspired by soldiers returning from World War I, Bessie Coleman decided to become a pilot, but in 1916 American flight schools did not admit women. This book examines the challenging times and amazing accomplishments of Coleman on her journey to not only become the first woman of African American and Native American descent to earn an international aviation pilot's license, but also a successful civilian pilot and famous stunt flyer.
This book discusses the life of the determined African American woman who went all the way to France in order to earn her pilot's license in 1921.
Arranged alphabetically from "Alice of Dunk's Ferry" to "Jean Childs Young," this volume profiles 312 Black American women who have achieved national or international prominence.