Page 19 - Ruth Law

RUTH LAW
DAYTONA'S PIONEER AVIATOR

QUEEN BESS

Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman
1892-1926

Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman, known as "Queen Bess," was
the first African American to become a licensed airplane
pilot, and the first American of any race or gender to
hold an international pilot's license.

Bessie was born in Atlanta, Texas, to George and Susan
Coleman. The tenth of thirteen children in a
sharecropper's family, she walked four miles each day to
her all-black, one-room school. Bessie loved to read and
was a superior math student.

In 1915, at 23 years old, she moved to Chicago, Illinois,
and worked as a manicurist. Her interest in flying was
peaked by returning pilots from WWI. However, she
could not be admitted to American flight schools because
she was black and a woman. No black U.S. aviator
would train her either.

Bessie took a French language class at Berlitz and then
traveled to Paris in 1920. There, she learned to fly in a
biplane, and on June 15, 1921 received her pilot's
license. She continued advanced training in France and
Germany.

Returning to the U.S., she became a media sensation
and highly popular for five years. On April 30, 1926, at
the age of 34, in Jacksonville, Florida, while preparing for
an air show, the plane did not pull out of a planned
nosedive, and “Queen Bess” did not survive. Her dream
of establishing a school for young black aviators was
never fulfilled.

HER PLACE IN AVIATION HISTORY
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