Bessie Coleman On The Air Analysis

Bessie’s quotes “The air is the only place free from prejudices.” relates when she was the first African American women to fly an airplane. In her quotes she is saying that on the air, she felt free because no one could judge her. She believed that it doesn’t matter what color you are, to achieve something, she took no for an answer. Bessie was the first African American women to fly an airplane, but to do that she had to achieve the three goals she made for herself, learning how to ride and earn a pilot's licence, becoming a recognized stunt and exhibition flyer, and Bessie did not live long enough to achieve her third goal, which was to create an aviation school where young black Americans could learn to fly and prepare for careers
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Bessie was born to George and Susan Coleman as the tenth of thirteen children. Bessie’s family moved to Waxahachie, near Dallas while she had still been a toddler. When she was seven years old her father, who had been three-fourths Indian, moved back to the Indian territory, leaving their mother with four daughters and one son while he had taken the rest of their children. Susan Coleman, Bessie’s mom supported her family by picking cotton and taking in laundry, and the children helped her with her work. Her mother could not read or write at that time, but she encouraged her children to learn as much as they possibly could, so they could achieve huge accomplishments in the future..When Bessie was eleven years old, two people, Orville and Wilbur Wright had made the first victorious airplane flight near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. The flight had taken place on a narrowing strip of sand called Kill Devil Hill, a thousand miles from the Texas cabin where Bessie had lived. Yet in all the lives of both Bessie and wright brother are forever linked because they were all pioneers in the field of
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To her shows she dressed in a stylish military uniform. Flying above the ground in her Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplane, she performed breathtaking accomplishments, such as, loops, spirals, and astonishing dives. Bessie would have an assistant fly her plane while she performed a daring parachute jump, but she only had done that at some shows. Some people had called her "Queen Bessie" because that was her nickname and because of the striking stunts she had performed in air shows. During a show in California, Bessie had suffered with broken ribs and a broken leg when she had to crash-land after she had, had mechanical difficulties. The injuries she had kept her out of flying for practically two years, but she had later returned to make a highly successful tour of Texas and the South. The tour had brought in a considerable amount of money, and Bessie felt she would be ready to open her school after doing a final tour of Florida. On April 30, 1926, Bessie and a mechanic were making a test flight in Jacksonville, when the plane went into a sudden dive and crashed, killing both occupants, Bessie and the mechanic. Bessie was buried in Chicago, where 5,000 supporters attended her funeral. In the years since her tragic death, Coleman's legacy has inspired numerous African-American women to realize their