Cotton Canvas Tote Bag (Bessie Coleman)

Bessie Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) was an early American civil aviator1. She was the first African American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license1. She is also the earliest known Black person to earn an international pilot’s license.

Born to a family of sharecroppers in Texas, Coleman worked in the cotton fields at a young age while also studying in a small segregated school1. She attended one term of college at Langston University. Coleman developed an early interest in flying, but African Americans, Native Americans, and women had no flight training opportunities in the United States, so she saved and obtained sponsorships in Chicago to go to France for flight school1. She then became a high-profile pilot in notoriously dangerous air shows in the United States. She was popularly known as “Queen Bess” and “Brave Bessie and hoped to start a school for African American fliers1. Unfortunately, Coleman died in a plane crash in 19261.

Her pioneering role was an inspiration to early pilots and to the African American and Native American communities. Today, she is remembered as a trailblazer who broke down barriers in a field that was, at the time, dominated by white men