In 1922 Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to receive her pilot license. She did not earn her certification here in America though, because flight schools repeatedly denied to train her due to her race and gender. Bessie took it upon herself to overcome this by learning french and then traveling across the world to receive her training in France. The amazing part of this feat was that Bessie earned her license in just 7 months which is very quick. She quickly became specialized in stunt flying and parachuting. When she returned back to the US in 1922 she became the first African American woman to fly publicly. Unfortunately Bessie was taken very shortly after her career started, when in 1926 she was killed in an accident practicing a stunt for one of her shows. She was only 34 years old.
While Bessie’s career was short-lived, she still did a ton for the aviation industry. Defying the odds and getting her license despite the trouble she experienced, and then going on to performing stunts and parachuting skills for crowds all across the country inspired not only women but other African Americans too to take up a career in aviation, not only broadening our own industry, but advancing the Civil Rights Movement as well. I think its amazing that someone could train only 7 months and then quickly transition into doing stunts on such a rudimentary aircraft. She is a big inspiration to me after reading her story, as I had never heard of her before today.