Bessie+Coleman+by+Cassie

=Bessie Coleman=

Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in eighteen ninety-two.She was the tenth of thirteen children. Her mother was African American and her father was part African American. Her family was very poor. When she was 9 years old, her father left the family to search in Oklahoma for the territory of his ancestors. In the sothern states, black people were treated unfairly. They lived separately from white people. Bessie was proud of her race. Bessie had to pick cotton and wash clothes to help earn money for her family. She was able to save a little money and went to college in Oklahoma. She was in college only one year but she had to leave because she did not have enough money to complete her education. During that year, she learned about flying. She read about the first flight of the Wright Brothers and the first American female pilot, Harriet Quimby. Bessie often thought about what it would feel like to fly a plane. When she was 23, Bessie Coleman moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with two of her older brothers. She worked several jobs. One was at the White Sox Barber Shop, there she heard stories from pilots who were returning from World War One. She decided she was going to learn how to fly airplanes.This was almost impossible. What flight school would admit a black woman? She found that there were none in the United States. Bessie learned that she would have a better chance in Europe. She studied French at a school in Chicago. After the end of World War One, she left for France. She Went to a famous flight school called Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron, in the town of Le Crotoy in northern France. She learned to fly planes that had two sets of wings. One was over the other. She had seven months of flight training. She earned her international permit to fly in 1921 from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France. She became the FIRST BLACK WOMAN EVER to earn an international pilot's license! She returned to Chicago. She was the only black female pilot in the United States. Her story became popular in African American newspapers. She learned that it was hard for anyone to earn enough money as a pilot to live. She knew she would have to improve her flying skills and learn to do more tricks in the air if she wanted to get hiered. No one would teach her in Chicago. So, she returned to Europe in 1922. She finnished four more months of flight training with French and German pilots. She returned to New York where she gave her first flying performance in the United States. A big crowd of people watched her. She did lots off tricks. The crowd loved her performance. She pereformed all across the contry in different citys. Bessie Coleman had proved she could fly. She wanted to learn more. She hoped to create a school for black pilots in the U.S. She needed a plane of her own. She traveled to L.A, California, where she got the support of a company that sold tires. The company helped her buy a Curtiss JN-Four airplane, called a Jenny. In return, she was to advertise the company at public events. Bessie Coleman planed an air show in Los Angeles. The plane's engine stopped soon after take-off, and the plane crashed.She suffered a broken leg and other injuries. She sent a message to her suporters: "Tell them all that as soon as I can walk I'm going to fly!" She opened an office in Chicago. She then found that it was impossible to keep the office without more financial support. She decided to go back to flying.

She gave speches and did different Jobs to earn money. She soon had enough money to pay for some of the cost of a new plane, it was a another Curtiss Jenny. She continued her air shows in the state of Georgia and in Florida. She hoped to earn enough money to open her school. In Florida, Coleman met Edwin Beeman. Mister Beeman ( Edwins father) gave her the money to make the final payment on her plane. She made plans to have it flown to her in Jacksonville, Florida. A young white pilot, William Wills,came on the trip. The old Jenny had problems. Wills had to make two stops during the flight to fix the plane. On April thirtieth, nineteen twenty-six, Coleman was preparing for an air show. She agreed to make the flight with William Wills. He flew the plane so she could clearly see the field she would fly over. She did not use a seat belt or parachute. They would have stoped her from leaning over to see the field. During the flight, the plane's controls became stuck. The plane turned over in the air. Nothing was holding Bessie in. She fell more than a kilometer to her death. Wills also died when the plane crashed. They later found the cause of the accident. A tool had slid into the controls of the plane. Throughout her life, Bessie Coleman had resisted society's restrictions against blacks and women. It was not until World War 2 that black male pilots were in battle. It was not until nineteen eighty that the first black women completed military pilot training in the U.S. Bessie Coleman did not live to build her own flying school. But she had said that if she could create the minimum of her plans and desires, she would have no regrets. Her influence continues today. In nineteen ninety-two, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution praising her. It said: "Bessie Coleman continues to inspire untold thousands, even millions of young people with her sense of adventure, her positive attitude and her determination to succeed. " Bessie coleman was a great pereson, she inspiered many to try eavn with there differences.

Sorces: Centennialoffilight.Gov, Wikapeidia.com, and Bessiecoleman.com