Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm to Blaine Chuck Reboarding and I'm Fair Dowdie. And
Speaker 1: as Black History Month is drawing to a close and
Speaker 1: Women's History Month is right around the corner, we thought
Speaker 1: it would be nice to do an episode that kind
Speaker 1: of bridges the gap between the two a little bit.
Speaker 1: And it's also a great excuse to return to a
Speaker 1: subject we really love but haven't touched on since last
Speaker 1: spring's Mystery of st X episode, and that's Aviation. Of course,
Speaker 1: this episode won't include many mysterious disappearances or Little Prince
Speaker 1: impersonation Bin a Little Prince. It's one of my favorite
Speaker 1: podcast moment. But that doesn't mean that the life of
Speaker 1: this subject, Bessie Coleman, is any less fascinating, not at all.
Speaker 1: Coleman was the first African American woman in the world
Speaker 1: to earn a pilot license, and she was also the
Speaker 1: first life African American pilot of either sex. According to
Speaker 1: Flight Journal. She was a contemporary of Amelia Earhart and
Speaker 1: in fact earned her pilot flights since a year before
Speaker 1: Earhart did. Of course, she managed to do this in
Speaker 1: the early nineteen twenties, during a time when most Americans,
Speaker 1: even those in the black community, still felt that a
Speaker 1: woman's place was in the home, not in the workplace,
Speaker 1: and certainly not flying around in the sky. What's more,
Speaker 1: segregation was still a big factor, and there weren't any
Speaker 1: white flight instructors who were willing to take on Coleman
Speaker 1: as a student. So we're going to be taking a
Speaker 1: look at how Coleman overcame these obstacles to pursue her dream.
Speaker 1: After all, if there weren't white flight instructors who were
Speaker 1: willing to take her on, how did she learn to
Speaker 1: fly because there weren't black flight in So, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: going to be one of the mysteries we unveil, and
Speaker 1: then we're going to take a look to it why
Speaker 1: she wanted to learn to fly in the first place,
Speaker 1: and how after becoming a pilot she used her position
Speaker 1: to fight for equality for others of her race. But
Speaker 1: to truly understand what Coleman was up against in pursuing
Speaker 1: her dream of flying, you really have to go all
Speaker 1: the way back to her childhood. She was born Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Coleman on January eighteen, nine, two in Atlanta, Texas, and
Speaker 1: she was one of thirteen children in a family of
Speaker 1: poor sharecroppers. Her mother, Susan Coleman, was black, and her father,
Speaker 1: George Coleman, was of mixed race, part of African American
Speaker 1: and part Cherokee. Neither of Bessie's parents could read or write,
Speaker 1: so in eighteen ninety four, George Coleman moved his family
Speaker 1: to walk the Hatchie, Texas and bought a small plot
Speaker 1: of land there to build a three room house. So
Speaker 1: in their new town, the Coleman's earned a living by
Speaker 1: picking cotton, and all the kids pitched in to to
Speaker 1: help raise money for the family, but they also went
Speaker 1: to school because their parents wanted a better life for them.
Speaker 1: Of course, schools were segregated at the time, so Bessie
Speaker 1: had to walk four miles every day to her school,
Speaker 1: which was basically just a single room that handled all
Speaker 1: eight grades that were offered. But despite those circumstances, that
Speaker 1: long trip to school and the combined nature of the classroom,
Speaker 1: Bessie's academic abilities really became clear even at a young age.
Speaker 1: She was especially good at math, and she even used
Speaker 1: her skills to make sure the foreman of the fields
Speaker 1: her family worked and didn't cheat them when it was
Speaker 1: time for them to get paid. But when Bessie was
Speaker 1: somewhere in the age range of six to nine years old,
Speaker 1: were seemed to differ on the exact timing of that
Speaker 1: Her father left them. He felt that discrimination really limited
Speaker 1: his opportunities for advancement in Texas, and so he wanted
Speaker 1: to move to Indian Territory, where as we've talked about
Speaker 1: on some previous podcasts, his native American ancestry would have
Speaker 1: made him more of an equal citizen. But Susan Coleman
Speaker 1: didn't want that life. She didn't want to be a
Speaker 1: tough pioneer family, so she stayed behind with the kids
Speaker 1: and supported the family on her own by working as
Speaker 1: a cook and a housekeeper for a white family, which
Speaker 1: was also tough, of course, I mean as you would
Speaker 1: expect it to be. But meanwhile Bessie had to take
Speaker 1: on the housekeeping duties with her mother away, working this
Speaker 1: the day in her own halfhold, and take care of
Speaker 1: her younger sisters while her mother was away, and often
Speaker 1: she had a myth school to to do. All this,
Speaker 1: which must have been hard for aspect of bright student.
Speaker 1: She still had really big dreams, though, and Bessie's mother
Speaker 1: encouraged that. According to an article in Flight Journal by
Speaker 1: Dennis Morausei, Bessie's mom was known to say, if you
Speaker 1: stay a mule, you'll never win the race. And she
Speaker 1: used to have her kids copy the manners of the
Speaker 1: white filmily that she worked for, and she talked to
Speaker 1: them about the great achievements of African Americans, like a
Speaker 1: book or T. Washington and Harriett Tabman. And it must
Speaker 1: have made an impression because when Bessie completed all eight
Speaker 1: grades in her one room schoolhouse, and that was all
Speaker 1: that they offered, because they just expected, okay, exactly, we're
Speaker 1: going to go work in the fields. Now. She graduated
Speaker 1: in and at that point she knew that she wanted
Speaker 1: more after that, she wanted to become something else. So
Speaker 1: she had saved up some money by working as a
Speaker 1: laundress this whole time, and and that year at the
Speaker 1: age of eighteen, and she used the savings to enroll
Speaker 1: in the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Lankston, Oklahoma
Speaker 1: it's now Lankston University. But she only had enough money
Speaker 1: to attend for one term, so as soon as that
Speaker 1: was up, she had to go back home start doing
Speaker 1: laundry and cleaning again to save up some more money.
Speaker 1: So at that point it seemed like she wasn't quite
Speaker 1: sure what her next move was going to be. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously that's a difficult scenario to maintain working saving money
Speaker 1: than going for a for a term. It all changed though,
Speaker 1: when her older brother Walter invited her to come and
Speaker 1: live with him in Chicago, and she still had to
Speaker 1: save up for a couple of years to make that
Speaker 1: move possible. But at the age of twenty three, Bessie
Speaker 1: headed up north. In Chicago was just a different world.
Speaker 1: They had an entire area of the city, the South Side,
Speaker 1: which was settled by mostly blacks, and there were just
Speaker 1: more job opportunities in a war back in walksa Hatchie,
Speaker 1: so Bessie enrolled in a beauty school and she ended
Speaker 1: up becoming a manicurist at the White Sox Barbershop. A
Speaker 1: few years after she moved up to Chicago, her mom
Speaker 1: and sisters moved up there too, while her brother's Walter
Speaker 1: and John, went off to France to fight in World
Speaker 1: War One. By this time, African Americans were allowed to
Speaker 1: serve in the military in segregated unit kind of an
Speaker 1: update from our mass to fifty fourth episode. So nobody
Speaker 1: seems to know exactly when Betsy became interested in flying.
Speaker 1: It might have been as far back as walksa Hatchie,
Speaker 1: and airplanes were, of course invented in nineteen o two
Speaker 1: probably made a pretty big impression on most children around then.
Speaker 1: But it might have also had something to do with
Speaker 1: the use of airplane technology in World War One and
Speaker 1: the advancements that were being made in their technology there
Speaker 1: used at the time, and probably she had an interest
Speaker 1: in World War One with her brother's away fighting, it
Speaker 1: definitely seemed like airplanes were the wave of the future,
Speaker 1: and she took an inch or at some point or another.
Speaker 1: But regardless of how she got interested, by the end
Speaker 1: of the war, flying had become Bessie's goal. Most sources
Speaker 1: actually relate a story about how her older brother John,
Speaker 1: who had just come home from the war, visited her
Speaker 1: in the barbershop one day and kind of started taunting her,
Speaker 1: sort of bragging about the women he had met in France,
Speaker 1: saying that they were so beautiful and intelligent and some
Speaker 1: of them could even fly planes, and he regaled her
Speaker 1: with these stories of female pilots. Bessie supposedly responded, that's it.
Speaker 1: You just called it for me. So that could have
Speaker 1: been the moment when she knew for sure she wanted
Speaker 1: to be a pilot, or maybe she just knew that
Speaker 1: France was an option for her. They're probably not the
Speaker 1: reaction her brother was expecting from his teasing, but either way,
Speaker 1: it was probably right around that time that she started
Speaker 1: to apply to American flight schools, except that she kept
Speaker 1: on getting rejected from them. Some of the schools would
Speaker 1: tell her they thought women shouldn't be flying at all
Speaker 1: because it was too risky. But race very well might
Speaker 1: have had something to you with it too. There were
Speaker 1: no black flight instructors, there were no black flight schools
Speaker 1: at the time. But Bessie did not quit. She did
Speaker 1: not give up on this on this dream. She had
Speaker 1: told one of her barbershop patrons, Robert Abbott, about her
Speaker 1: dream to fly and the problem she was having making
Speaker 1: it a reality. And Abbott was a pretty good guy
Speaker 1: to to tell your problems too. He was pretty influential.
Speaker 1: He was the editor of a black weekly newspaper called
Speaker 1: The Chicago Defender. I think that's popped up in in
Speaker 1: several episodes we've covered, but one of his biggest goals
Speaker 1: was to quote uplift the race, and according to Jacqueline
Speaker 1: McLean's profile of Bessie and Women with Wings, Abbott wanted
Speaker 1: to help her achieve her goals because he thought it
Speaker 1: would help prove what African Americans could accomplish. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're interested in uplifting the race, what better way
Speaker 1: than to sponsor a pilot who can literally fly up
Speaker 1: in a way because people can't say you can't do
Speaker 1: something if you actually show it, and it's just a
Speaker 1: powerful it's a powerful metaphor to two for what he
Speaker 1: was trying to do, flying yes, taking flight. So when
Speaker 1: Bessie passed on to Abbot what her brother had told
Speaker 1: her about France, he of course encouraged her to pursue
Speaker 1: flight school there. He was basically like, well, if no
Speaker 1: one in America will take you, you gotta go somewhere else.
Speaker 1: So at about age twenty eight, Bessie used for savings
Speaker 1: to start taking French classes so she could learn the language.
Speaker 1: She also applied for a passport and picked up an
Speaker 1: extra job at a restaurant just to save up some
Speaker 1: more money for school, and after applying to a few
Speaker 1: French flight school she was finally accepted to the Kadron
Speaker 1: Brothers School of Aviation in France. So Abbott did prove
Speaker 1: to be a benefactor. True to his word. He helped
Speaker 1: Bessie secure funds for school so she could cover tuition,
Speaker 1: and in late nineteen twenties she headed off to France
Speaker 1: to start a ten month flight course. So for about
Speaker 1: the first seven months of her training Bessie simply took lesson.
Speaker 1: She learned to fly in a French Newport Type eight
Speaker 1: two by plane and according to the McLean's profile we mentioned,
Speaker 1: during the lessons, a teacher would just sit in the
Speaker 1: front seat working all the controls, and a student pilot
Speaker 1: like Bessie would have to sit in the back seat
Speaker 1: and you couldn't necessarily see the instructor from there or
Speaker 1: even here the instructor because of course the engine was roaring,
Speaker 1: So students just learned to fly by feeling the movements
Speaker 1: of the controls, mimicking the instructor's motions, just really kind
Speaker 1: of picking it up along the way. Then on June fifteenth,
Speaker 1: at age twenty nine, Bessie earned her license from the
Speaker 1: Federalition Aeronautique Internacial. As we mentioned earlier, she was the
Speaker 1: first black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license,
Speaker 1: and the f AI license in particular was so highly
Speaker 1: regarded it was accepted by every country in the world.
Speaker 1: So this was the license that you wanted. Coleman finished
Speaker 1: up her program and returned home to the States that September,
Speaker 1: where she was met by reporters from both black and
Speaker 1: white newspapers who wanted to interview her. So pretty famous
Speaker 1: at this point. And while in New York, she was
Speaker 1: invited to see a Broadway musical with an all black
Speaker 1: cast called Shuffle Along. She was the guest of honor
Speaker 1: there and the performers gave her a silver cup and intermission.
Speaker 1: And she also started to form some new pretty big
Speaker 1: dreams about advancing the African American cause. I mean, now
Speaker 1: that she had achieved this seemingly insurmountimal dream of of flying,
Speaker 1: she had new goals and she started to think about
Speaker 1: opening an aviation school for black people, And according to
Speaker 1: McLean's profile, she said in an interview with The Chicago Defender, quote,
Speaker 1: we must have aviators if we are to keep up
Speaker 1: with the times. I shall never be satisfied until we
Speaker 1: have men of the race who can fly. Do you
Speaker 1: know you have never lived until you've flown. But of
Speaker 1: course to open a school she would need some cash,
Speaker 1: and at that moment, there really was no way for
Speaker 1: her to make it in the nineteen twenties. After all,
Speaker 1: there weren't any commercial airlines to work for and all
Speaker 1: the oh there were some pilots who were working for
Speaker 1: the postal service, they were pretty much all white night.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked about that in the X episode,
Speaker 1: exactly what he did working, carrying nail and doing that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. So Bessie realized she would have to
Speaker 1: make a living as an entertainer performing in air shows,
Speaker 1: but she needed more training to do this because she
Speaker 1: didn't really learn how to do stunts during her first
Speaker 1: stint in flight school. Air show performers at this time
Speaker 1: usually did things like loop the loops and barrel rolls
Speaker 1: and having people parachute out of plane. So in February
Speaker 1: nineteen two, Bessie went right back to France learned some tricks,
Speaker 1: so she trained there for two months and went to
Speaker 1: Germany to to train for ten more weeks. And while
Speaker 1: she was there, she was filmed flying over Berlin. She
Speaker 1: returned to the United States in August nineteen two, and
Speaker 1: her old friend and benefactor, Robert Abbott, who was still
Speaker 1: one of her biggest supporters, immediately scheduled an air show
Speaker 1: on Long Island that would feature her talents. And the
Speaker 1: show took place Labor Day, September three, nineteen at Curtiss Field,
Speaker 1: and according to Encyclopedia Britannica, this was the first public
Speaker 1: flight by an African American woman in America. But the
Speaker 1: people who she porrowed a plane from for this special
Speaker 1: occasion wouldn't allow her to do stunt, so she just
Speaker 1: kind of had to fly around still, though a huge
Speaker 1: crowd of people turned out to see her and to
Speaker 1: see this remarkable feat of African American woman pilot. After that,
Speaker 1: she did another exhibition at Checkerboard Field in Chicago, and
Speaker 1: there she did get to show off her acrobatic flying techniques,
Speaker 1: including loops, figure eights, and some spine tingling dips and dives,
Speaker 1: and the audience was really thrilled by it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think at one point I read an account where
Speaker 1: one of the moves she did was a dive that
Speaker 1: almost made it look as if the plane were going
Speaker 1: out of control. So the audience was really shocked. I
Speaker 1: mean they thought something was going wrong, and then kind
Speaker 1: of at the last second, she pulled up up and
Speaker 1: and she was fine, and they were all really thrilled
Speaker 1: by that. So her stunts earned her the nickname Queen
Speaker 1: Bess Daredevil a via tricks, and also Brave Bessie. So
Speaker 1: Abbott was the one who first started calling her Queen Bess,
Speaker 1: and that's where that case couldn't promote his his investment
Speaker 1: a little bit. Indeed, So Bessie was pretty famous, as
Speaker 1: you can imagine by this point. And not long after
Speaker 1: that Chicago show with all of the exciting stunts, the
Speaker 1: African American Seminal Film producing company got in touch with
Speaker 1: her about starring in a movie based on her life
Speaker 1: and at her accomplishments, called Shadow and Sunshine. Bessie initially
Speaker 1: agreed she signed on, but right from the beginning the
Speaker 1: script called for her to dress in rags and represent
Speaker 1: this poor, uneducated girl coming to the big city, which
Speaker 1: of course hadn't been her situation at all. She had
Speaker 1: worked hard to accomplish what she could in Texas and
Speaker 1: and then made her way to Chicago. She didn't like
Speaker 1: the way that the story in general, though portrayed black woman.
Speaker 1: She thought it made people black people in general look ignorant.
Speaker 1: So she quit. And quitting this project really meant she
Speaker 1: lost the support of the black entertainment community, dropping out
Speaker 1: so suddenly. And I mean, one can't help but wonder
Speaker 1: if she had done this movie, would her name be
Speaker 1: better known today? That's true, I didn't think about that.
Speaker 1: But she still needed money after this. She didn't have
Speaker 1: the support of the entertainment community, but she still needed
Speaker 1: some cash to save but for her aviation school. I mean,
Speaker 1: besides the fact that she just needed some money to
Speaker 1: live as well. And I mean we mentioned before her
Speaker 1: borrowing planes, she still didn't have a plane of her own,
Speaker 1: so every time she performed somewhere, she had to rely
Speaker 1: on somebody else to learn her a plane. So Bestie
Speaker 1: needed to find some gigs fast, and she thought she
Speaker 1: found a really good one in Oakland, California. In early nine.
Speaker 1: She made a deal with the Coast Tire and Rubber
Speaker 1: company that was based there, and they offered to buy
Speaker 1: her a plane if she would agree to drop ads
Speaker 1: for them from a plane during an air show, and
Speaker 1: the show took place February four nine, but it didn't
Speaker 1: exactly go as planned. It seemed like it was off
Speaker 1: to a good start. Bessie was for the first time
Speaker 1: flying her own plane, which was a Curtis j N four,
Speaker 1: better known as a Jenny. It was a used plane,
Speaker 1: though she couldn't afford a brand new plane, so it
Speaker 1: was leftover from World War One and wasn't in the
Speaker 1: best condition. Soon after she took off that day, the
Speaker 1: plane's motor stalled and it fell three hundred feet and crashed.
Speaker 1: Bessie was okay, but she was really badly injured. She
Speaker 1: had a broken leg, fractured ribs, and internal injuries. But
Speaker 1: what probably surprises me the most about this whole story
Speaker 1: is that, rather than just being shocked and concerned, the audience,
Speaker 1: according to McLean's profile, was really angry that they hadn't
Speaker 1: gotten the show that they came to see, and they
Speaker 1: asked for their money back. That is pretty surprising. I mean,
Speaker 1: you would think okay, shows over and I'm worried the
Speaker 1: pilot didn't even make it, or at least just horror,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't know, yeah, concerned for another
Speaker 1: still hoping for some barrel rolls and and seeing all
Speaker 1: the tricks that you paid for. But with a long
Speaker 1: road to recovery ahead of her, and of course her
Speaker 1: plane demolished. Not to mention no funds anymore, Bessie had
Speaker 1: to go home to Chicago to recoup again. That she
Speaker 1: didn't let that set back, I mean, breaking her leg
Speaker 1: keep her down. She told her friends, tell them that
Speaker 1: as soon as I can walk, I'm going to fly.
Speaker 1: About a year later, she made good on that. She
Speaker 1: was fully recovered, and she planned a tour of lectures
Speaker 1: and air shows across Texas which took her to Houston,
Speaker 1: San Antonio, Dallas, and her old hometown of Waxahatchie. And
Speaker 1: the tour was a big success, even though Bessie drew
Speaker 1: some pretty serious lines in the stand along the way.
Speaker 1: For example, right before performing in Waxahatchie, she learned that
Speaker 1: black audience members were required to use a separate entrance
Speaker 1: to the grounds from their white counterparts, so Bessie refused
Speaker 1: to fly unless everyone got to use the same entrance.
Speaker 1: So this was taking a really big risk on her
Speaker 1: part because she needed the money. She needed that gig.
Speaker 1: But surprisingly the event organizers complied with her requests because
Speaker 1: after all of the show did not take place, they
Speaker 1: weren't going to make any money off of it either.
Speaker 1: In a way, again, it reminds me of Satil Page.
Speaker 1: I think everything reminds me of Satil Page, but his
Speaker 1: his putting his foot down on certain issues about how
Speaker 1: events were segregated. Bessie managed to make enough money though
Speaker 1: off of that Texas tour to save a little cash
Speaker 1: and put another down payment on a Jenny the plane
Speaker 1: that she had crashed in originally hoping to get a
Speaker 1: better version this time after a brief visit to Chicago
Speaker 1: at the end of she set off again for another tour,
Speaker 1: this time a tour of the Southeast, during which she
Speaker 1: lectured at churches and theaters and schools and both Georgia
Speaker 1: and Florida. And there was another incident at the Chamber
Speaker 1: of Commerce Flower Show in Orlando, Florida. Bessy was supposed
Speaker 1: to perform, and then she found out that the event
Speaker 1: was advertised for White's ownly, again she refused to perform
Speaker 1: unless blocks were allowed in, and again the organizers relented.
Speaker 1: I guess when it came down to making money or
Speaker 1: standing on their questionable principles money. Yeah. So during these
Speaker 1: Southeastern tours, Bessie also met Edwin M. Beamon, who was
Speaker 1: the heir to the Beamon Chewing Your Unfortune. He helped
Speaker 1: her pay off the Jenny plane she'd started to buy
Speaker 1: back in Dallas, and she planned to use that plane
Speaker 1: to perform a very special trick, a parachute jump at
Speaker 1: the Negro Welfare League field day in Jacksonville, Florida. So
Speaker 1: she needed a partner for this. She got a white
Speaker 1: pilot mechanic named William Wills to fly the plane over
Speaker 1: from Dallas to Jacksonville, and he had to make two
Speaker 1: emergency landings along the way because the plane kept on
Speaker 1: experiencing engine problems. Again, this was not a new plane,
Speaker 1: it was the best Bestie could afford um and she
Speaker 1: was having to make do. So Will's managed to get
Speaker 1: the plane to Jacksonville and then he worked on the
Speaker 1: mechanical issue. By the morning of April he told Bessie
Speaker 1: that the plane was ready to fly. The air show
Speaker 1: was actually scheduled for the next day, but Bessie wanted
Speaker 1: to take the plane up to fly over the jump
Speaker 1: site and kind of get a feel for how things
Speaker 1: were going to go on the day of just to
Speaker 1: be prepared. So they took off and Will's was up
Speaker 1: front since he would be flying the plane during the
Speaker 1: actual jump, and Bessie was in the rear cockpit. She
Speaker 1: didn't have her seatbelt fastened because she was only around
Speaker 1: five ft three ish inches tall, and she wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to lean over the side of the plane and
Speaker 1: see the ground if she was strapped in, so it
Speaker 1: would kind of defeat the purpose of going out in
Speaker 1: the first place. So they flew out, and they circled
Speaker 1: the area where the jump was going to take place,
Speaker 1: and then they rose to about three thousand, five hundred feet.
Speaker 1: As they started to head back, they were traveling along
Speaker 1: at that elevation and an eighty miles per hour, and
Speaker 1: suddenly the plane nos dived at about one thousand feet,
Speaker 1: it went into a tailspin, and then at five hundred
Speaker 1: feet it completely flipped over, throwing Bessie out of the
Speaker 1: plane and the fall killed her. Wills, meanwhile, tried to
Speaker 1: write the plane, but it crashed about one thousand feet
Speaker 1: from where Coleman landed, and he too was killed in
Speaker 1: the crash, and an investigation that followed revealed that the
Speaker 1: accident had been caused by a wrench that was left
Speaker 1: in the engine and had gotten all jammed up in
Speaker 1: the gear. So memorial services were held for Coleman in
Speaker 1: both Jackson Bill in Orlando, and on May five, her
Speaker 1: remains were returned to Chicago. The Illinois Central Train station
Speaker 1: was apparently packed with mourners upon her arrival, and at
Speaker 1: the service that was held for her at Pilgrim Baptist
Speaker 1: Church in Chicago, about ten thousand people showed up to
Speaker 1: pay their respects. Bessie Coleman was buried in Lincoln Cemetery.
Speaker 1: At her grave, there's a five foot high monument that
Speaker 1: has a photo of her on it, all dressed up
Speaker 1: in her leather flight gear that she preferred, and she
Speaker 1: standing in front of her planes. Show you guys can
Speaker 1: google pictures of her two. She's actually really beautiful and
Speaker 1: her outfits are cool to look at, and it's just
Speaker 1: neat to look at because I didn't know about her
Speaker 1: before I researched this podcast. It was neat to just
Speaker 1: look at her face. It looks kind of intense. Some
Speaker 1: of those photos twenties era aviation costumes are always pretty
Speaker 1: cool looking indeed, but not everyone really celebrated or paid
Speaker 1: their respects to Bessie after her death. White newspapers at
Speaker 1: the time, when they recounted the crash, seemed to focus
Speaker 1: more on Wills, implying that he was teaching Bessie how
Speaker 1: to fly and the situation flight isn't it it is?
Speaker 1: And sometimes they didn't even refer to Bessie by name,
Speaker 1: calling her simply the woman the Chicago Defender, though of
Speaker 1: course I knew what she truly was, and wrote though
Speaker 1: with the crashing of the plane, life ceased for Bessie Coleman,
Speaker 1: enough members of the race have been inspired by her
Speaker 1: courage to carry on in the field of aviation. Whatever
Speaker 1: is accomplished by members of the Race and aviation will
Speaker 1: stand as a memorial to Ms. Coleman. And and this
Speaker 1: reminded me a little bit of the Tuskegee Airman upisode
Speaker 1: I think Candice and Jane did a while back, because there,
Speaker 1: of course the most famous African American aviators. And I
Speaker 1: guess since neither of us had heard of Bethie Coleman before,
Speaker 1: it is interesting to think of her as a as
Speaker 1: a memorial almost too till later aviators. Yeah, I though
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't know her story today. I
Speaker 1: mean compared to Amelia Earharts, who, as we mentioned, was
Speaker 1: a contemporary of hers, she has been remembered in that
Speaker 1: way that the Chicago's frender mentioned he has an inspiration,
Speaker 1: especially to others of her race and her gender. In
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, black entrepreneur William J. Powell founded the
Speaker 1: Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs to encourage more African Americans to
Speaker 1: participate in flying, and then in nineteen seventy seven, a
Speaker 1: group of female black pilots founded the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club.
Speaker 1: She ofso has a few tributes back in Chicago. In
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety a road at O'Hare Airport was renamed Bessie
Speaker 1: Coleman Drive. In in nine Chicago's mayor declared may Second
Speaker 1: Bessie Coleman Day. So she still remains an inspiration for
Speaker 1: aviators and even just people who want equality. There's a
Speaker 1: great quote of hers that I wanted to share before
Speaker 1: we finish off this episode, and it's the sky is
Speaker 1: the only place. There is no prejudice up there. Everyone
Speaker 1: is equal, everyone is free. That is a really great quote,
Speaker 1: and I think it's also interesting to consider her not
Speaker 1: just an inspiration for African American aviators or women, but
Speaker 1: just somebody who went out and accomplished things that she
Speaker 1: raised money for her French lessons and moved abroad, found
Speaker 1: a school that would teach her what she was trying
Speaker 1: to learn. I mean, that's inspirational, gender and race aside. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and she went through a lot to get there. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think people tend to get discouraged sometimes when they
Speaker 1: get off track of what they want to do, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have to work this other job. But she worked
Speaker 1: as a laundress and as a manicurist and all kind
Speaker 1: ends of random things, you know, worked in a restaurant,
Speaker 1: and eventually, at the age of thirty, finally got to
Speaker 1: do which she was trying to go. So if you
Speaker 1: want to suggest any other similarly inspirational people to us,
Speaker 1: you can always suggest topics at History Podcast at Discovery
Speaker 1: dot com. We're also on Twitter and missed in History,
Speaker 1: and we're on Facebook. And if you want to learn
Speaker 1: a little bit more about the topic we discussed today,
Speaker 1: which was flight, we have an article on our website
Speaker 1: called what was Man's first attempt at Flight? And you
Speaker 1: can find that by searching on our homepage at www.
Speaker 1: Dot how Stuff Works at dot com. Be sure to
Speaker 1: check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Speaker 1: Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
Speaker 1: promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The House Stuff Works
Speaker 1: iPhone up has a rise. Download it today on iTunes
Speaker 1: in Pe.