When American flight schools denied her entry because of her gender and race, the daughter of Texas sharecroppers traveled to France, enrolled in the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation and emerged several months later with an international pilot’s license—the first ever awarded to an African American woman.
Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman first caught the flying bug after hearing tales of World War I pilots. When American flight schools denied her entry because of her gender and race, the daughter of Texas sharecroppers traveled to France, enrolled in the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation and emerged several months later with an international pilot’s license—the first ever awarded to an African American woman.