1920 traveled to France to earn her pilot's license

While working as a manicurist at the White Sox Barber Shop, Coleman heard stories from pilots returning home from World War I. She took a second job to save money in hopes of becoming a pilot herself. American flight schools of the time admitted neither women nor black people, so Robert S. Abbott, founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender newspaper, encouraged her to study abroad.[3] Abbot publicized Coleman's quest in his newspaper and she received financial sponsorship from banker Jesse Binga and the Defender.[14] Bessie Coleman took a French-language class at the Berlitz Language Schools in Chicago and then traveled to Paris, France, on November 20, 1920, so that she could earn her pilot license. She learned to fly in a Nieuport 564 biplane with "a steering system that consisted of a vertical stick the thickness of a baseball bat in front of the pilot and a rudder bar under the pilot's feet." On June 15, 1921, Coleman became the first black woman[8] and first self-identified Native American[16] to earn an aviation pilot's license.

none

Category:
Aviation

Completion Status:
yes

Patent Number:
N/A

Co-Inventor:
none