Born: January 26, 1892 Atlanta, Texas Died: May 1, 1926 Jacksonville, Florida African-American aviator Bessie Coleman was the first African-American to obtain an international pilot's license. He dazzled crowds with his stunts at air shows and refused to be slowed down by racism (a dislike or disrespect for a person based on their race). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in a one-room dirt-floor cabin in Atlanta, Texas, to George and Susan Coleman, the illiterate (unable to read and write) children of slaves. When Bessie was two years old, her father, a day laborer, moved the family to Waxahachie, Texas, where he purchased a quarter-acre of land and built a three-room house in which two more daughters were born. In 1901 George Coleman left his family. Bessie's mother and two older brothers went to work, and Bessie was left as caretaker for her two younger sisters. Education for Coleman was limited to eight classes in a one-room schoolhouse that closed whenever students were needed in the fields to help their families harvest. cotton. Coleman easily established his position as the family's leader, reading aloud to his siblings and mother at night. He often assured his ambitious church-going mother that he meant "equivalent to something." After completing school she worked as a laundress and saved her wages until 1910 when she left for Oklahoma to attend Langston University. He left after a year when he ran out of money. Returning to Waxahachie, Coleman again worked as a laundress until 1915, when she moved to Chicago, Illinois, to live with her older brother, Walter. Within a few months she became a manicurist and moved into a place of her own, continuing to search for—and finally, in 1920, find—a goal for her life: to become a pilot. After befriending several leaders in South Side Chicago's African-American community, Coleman found a sponsor in Robert Abbott (1868–1940), publisher of the nation's largest African-American weekly, the Chicago Defender. There were no African-American aviators (pilots) in the area, and when no white pilots were willing to teach her to fly, Coleman turned to Abbott, who suggested she go to France. The French, he insisted, were not racist and were the world leaders in aviation. Coleman left for France in late 1920. There he completed flight training at the best French school and obtained his Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI; international pilot's license) license on 15 June 1921. He traveled in Europe, gaining further experience flying so he could perform in air shows. Returning to New York in August 1922, Coleman outlined goals for the remainder of Bessie Coleman. His life is reproduced with permission from the Corbis Corporation for journalists. She would be a leader, she said, in introducing aviation to her race. She would establish a school for aviators of all races and appear before audiences in churches, schools, and theaters to pique the interest of African Americans in the new and expanding flight technology. Intelligent, beautiful, and well-spoken, Coleman often exaggerated her already impressive accomplishments in the interests of better publicity and a larger audience. As a result, the country's African-American press, primarily weeklies, quickly proclaimed her “Queen Bess. “In 1923 Coleman purchased a small plane but it crashed on the way to his first scheduled air show on the West Coast..