Bessie Coleman was born to sharecroppers in Texas ... a one-room wooden shack located four miles from her house. Her classroom often lacked basic supplies like paper and pencils, and, like all ...

Bessie Coleman was the first African-American woman, and also the first woman of Native-American descent, to hold a pilot’s license. Coleman grew up in a cruel world of poverty and discrimination.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Bessie Coleman was an ambitious young woman, inspired by Black pilots in World War I. Her accomplishments inspired generations of women and girls aspiring to become pilots.