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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. Well, when we think

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Speaker 1: of the early pioneers in the field of American flight,

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Speaker 1: we'll hear about Amelia Earhart's solo trek across the Atlantic

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Speaker 1: Ocean or Charles Lindbergh's NonStop journey in the Spirit of St. Louis.

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Speaker 1: But the textbooks have often overlooked a pivotal figure who

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Speaker 1: made an early mark on aviation history, Bessie Coleman, who

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Speaker 1: in nine one became the first African American woman to

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Speaker 1: be a licensed pilot. Coleman was born on January two

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Speaker 1: and grew up in Texas, the daughter of a Native

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Speaker 1: American and Black father and an African American mother who

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Speaker 1: both worked as sharecroppers. As the twelfth of thirteen children,

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Speaker 1: Coleman worked in the cotton fields after her father left

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Speaker 1: the family to return to his native reservation. She attended

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Speaker 1: primary school in a one room wooden shack. For the

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Speaker 1: article this episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke

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Speaker 1: with Dr Philip S. Hart. He's written two books on

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Speaker 1: Coleman and also served as an advisor to the Smithsonian

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Speaker 1: Air and Space Museum's Black Wings exhibit, which honors Black

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Speaker 1: men and women who have advanced the field of airspace.

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Speaker 1: Heart said she was a good student an avid reader.

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Speaker 1: She read about a woman named Harriet Quimby, a woman pilot,

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Speaker 1: she thought that might be something she would be interested

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Speaker 1: in doing. As a young woman, Coleman sought a different

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Speaker 1: life for herself than the one her parents had, and

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Speaker 1: she attended what's now called Langston University, but ended up

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Speaker 1: dropping out for financial reasons. She eventually made her way

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Speaker 1: to Chicago, where her brothers lived, and she worked as

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Speaker 1: a manicurist in a local salon. A one brother, who

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Speaker 1: had returned from fighting during World War One, regaled her

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Speaker 1: with stories of women pilots in France, joking that Coleman

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Speaker 1: would never be able to fly like them. Such teasing

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Speaker 1: only spurred on Coleman's ambitions to become a pilot. While

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Speaker 1: working in the salon, Coleman met Robert abbey It, publisher

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Speaker 1: of The Chicago Defender, which was a leading newspaper serving

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Speaker 1: the black community. Abbott would become her mentor, supporting her

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Speaker 1: interests in aviation. Hart explained one of the reasons he

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Speaker 1: wanted to support her was because he knew her exploits

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Speaker 1: would make for good stories in his newspaper. Based on

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Speaker 1: her gender and skin color, Coleman was denied admission to

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Speaker 1: all of the aviation schools she applied to in the

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Speaker 1: United States. At Abbot's encouragement, Coleman studied French and went

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Speaker 1: to Paris to learn how to fly. While there, Coleman

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Speaker 1: befriended fellow black American expatriots like entertainer Josephine Baker. After

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Speaker 1: receiving her international pilot's license from the International Aeronautical Federation

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Speaker 1: in Coleman returned to the United States, but the only

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Speaker 1: job opportunity for a trained pilot and delivering mail for

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Speaker 1: the Postal Service, was unavailable to her as a black

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Speaker 1: person and as a woman, so she turned to performing

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Speaker 1: aerial stunts, also known as barn storming. Her first air

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Speaker 1: show took place at the Checkerboard Field in Chicago. In

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Speaker 1: Nino Heart said, generally those air shows attracted anywhere from

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Speaker 1: twenty thousand to thirty thousand people. Their high energy affairs,

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Speaker 1: big bands. You had pilots doing tricks, wingwalkers, parachute jumpers.

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Speaker 1: A very high energy, yet very dangerous event, very profitable

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Speaker 1: for the pilot. Barnstorming became a lucrative way not only

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Speaker 1: to make a living, but also to finance the aeronautical

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Speaker 1: schools that Coleman intended to set up to foster black

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Speaker 1: participation in aviation. But despite Coleman's drive, winsome personality, and

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Speaker 1: immense talent, it wasn't always an easy career path. Heart said,

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Speaker 1: You're going to get negative reactions from people in general,

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Speaker 1: white people because she's black and she's a woman. She's

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Speaker 1: going to get a certain kind of reaction from black

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Speaker 1: people who think she shouldn't be a pilot because it

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Speaker 1: was viewed to something that men should do. So she

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Speaker 1: faced discrimination and conflict from both black and white people,

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Speaker 1: but for the most part, her support in the black

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Speaker 1: community was pretty strong. Sadly, tragedy cut short Coleman's life

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Speaker 1: on April ninety six, when she died after falling from

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Speaker 1: her plane while rehearsing for an air show in Jacksonville, Florida.

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Speaker 1: A funeral service was held in Jacksonville and a much

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Speaker 1: larger one in Chicago, which more than five thousand people attended,

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Speaker 1: including black civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, who eulogized Coleman.

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Speaker 1: Coleman's life has seen a renewed interest in recent decades

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Speaker 1: from institutions seeking to honor her pioneering work and legacy

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Speaker 1: as a black woman in aviation. The US Postal Service

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Speaker 1: honored Coleman by placing her image on a stamp that

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Speaker 1: came out in as part of their Black Heritage series,

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Speaker 1: and Heart is currently working on a future film about

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Speaker 1: Coleman's life story. The National Aviation Hall of Fame also

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Speaker 1: enshrined Coleman as one of the honorees in two thousand six,

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Speaker 1: which Amy Spowart, president and CEO of that organization, called

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Speaker 1: overdue and necessary. In an email interview with How Stuff Works,

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Speaker 1: Spowart said, Bessie never took no for an answer, whether

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Speaker 1: it was working extremely hard to save up the funds

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Speaker 1: needed for lessons learning French. When she realized that she

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Speaker 1: would need to go to France to earn her license,

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Speaker 1: and that she would always fight gender and race bigotry,

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Speaker 1: Coleman didn't let anything stand in her way. Dr Hart's

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Speaker 1: Mother's uncle, one James Herman Banning, was the first black

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Speaker 1: American pilot to be licensed by the US government in

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Speaker 1: ninety and he served as the first chief pilot of

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Speaker 1: the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, which was established in nine

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Speaker 1: in honor of Coleman to support black men and women

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Speaker 1: in the field of aeronautics. The Bessie Coleman Aero Club

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Speaker 1: ended up training many black pilots, some of whom went

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Speaker 1: on to serve as Tuscogee airmen during World War Two.

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Speaker 1: They also sponsored the first all black flight shows in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties in Los Angeles, which raised money for

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Speaker 1: the city Unemployment Fund at the height of the Great Depression.

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Speaker 1: Heart said her legacy the black men and women she

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Speaker 1: inspired to follow her into the field of aviation. The

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Speaker 1: first African American woman to go into space, May Jamison

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Speaker 1: took a photo of Coleman into space with her. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode is based on the article Bessie Coleman, America's first

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Speaker 1: Black female Avia tricks on houstff works dot Com, written

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Speaker 1: by Terry yr Lagata. Brain Stuff is production of by

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com,

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Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts from

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Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.