RegalMag.com spotlights unsung heroes for Black History Month 2025.
Elon Musk would have probably hated pilot Bessie Coleman.
The Black female aviator would have gotten Musk’s proverbial panties in a bunch because she represented two groups that the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hates based on his attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Coleman was a woman.
And if that was not bad enough, Coleman was a Black woman.
Due to Musk’s limited understanding of DEI, he likely believed that society lowered its standards solely to allow a Black woman to become a pilot.
But whatever standards got Coleman her wings, no one ever complained about an airplane falling out of the sky while she was in command.
The African American Encyclopedia wrote, “Coleman learned to fly in Europe because there was nowhere in the United States for an African American woman to learn to fly. She was the first Black woman, and one of the first women, to earn an International Pilots License. She planned to teach young Black men to fly but died in a plane crash before realizing that ambition.”
When asked by the legendary Chicago Defender why she became a pilot, Coleman responded, “Well, because I knew we had no aviators, neither men nor women, and I knew the race needed to be represented along this racist important line, so I thought it my duty to risk my life to learn aviating and to encourage flying among men and women of the race who are so far behind the White men in this special line, I made up my mind to try. I tried and was successful.”
Having the mindset to break down barriers made Coleman a tremendous success even before she got into an airplane.
Like so many Black Americans in the early 20th century, Coleman came from humble beginnings.
Born on Jan. 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, Coleman was one of 13 children born to Susan and George Coleman, both who could not read or write.
Both of her parents were born slaves.
The family of 15 lived in a one-room cabin home.
Young Coleman did not have a birth certificate.
Instead, her birth was documented in the family Bible.
Coleman grew up under the racist Jim Crow caste system, which relegated Black Americans to status as second-class citizens.
Often, Black people faced violence when they did not comply with segregation or attempted to speak up for their God-given rights.
WomensHistory.org wrote, “Even while facing the violence and barriers by Jim Crow segregation, George Coleman bought a small plot of land in Waxahachie, Texas, thirty miles south of Dallas. Bessie Coleman’s early childhood was a happy one, spent playing on the front lawn edged by red and yellow roses and attending church on Sunday…Coleman walked four miles from her home to school where she was taught reading, writing and arithmetic, often without textbooks or enough paper and pencils…
“She applied to almost every American flying school but was rejected because of her race and gender. The doors to the open skies of America were closed to Coleman, but France appeared to be a different story.”
But Coleman’s story was not all accomplishments with no obstacles.
She moved from Texas to Chicago to escape racism.
However, she still experienced race riots when she lived up north.
Coleman came from a great two-parent home.
However, marital problems did not skip her parents.
Her mother, Susan eventually became a single parent.
While in Chicago, Coleman learned five trades and got married.
But she still saw her brothers go out to war, fighting for a country that did not give them the same opportunities that it gave White men.
Despite the dangers of war, it was while at war that her brothers became exposed to women pilots.
That exposure to woman pilots led Coleman to set her sights on the sky to become an inspiration for the Black community.
Coleman became a barnstorming pilot, performing in 350 air shows.
It was during a fateful airshow in Jacksonville, Fla. that Coleman met her untimely demise at 33 years old.
The aviator was in Jacksonville, Fla. for a day-long Negro Welfare League benefit at the fairgrounds nearby.
In 2019, Bill Foley of The Florida Times-Union reported, “Barnstorming Bessie Coleman, America’s first Black aviatrix, pitched from the passenger seat of a dilapidated airplane and fell to her death before an audience of one.
“The plane’s pilot, William Wills, 24, of Dallas, Texas, died when the second-hand craft crashed into a tree on the Meadows farmland near the present Broadway and Edgewood avenues. Coleman’s body was found a quarter mile away…
“Pilot said Willis’ plane was in poor condition. He arrived from Texas the day before, flying 21 hours and making two forced landings en route.
“The sudden dive was believed caused when a wrench fell into a gear box.”
Coleman’s unfastened seatbelt contributed to her death.
Her death was widely reported in the Black press.
Furthermore, thousands of people attended her funeral in Chicago.
Iconic Black activist Ida B. Wells delivered Coleman’s eulogy.
One factor in Coleman’s career development was how the Black community came together to support her dreams when opportunities for Black aviators did not exist in America.
Chicago Defender founder Robert Abbott and banker Jesse Binga helped Coleman pay her tuition at Caudron Brothers School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France.
Coleman even learned French to help her matriculate through flight school in France.
Her story might serve as an inspiration for aspiring Black pilots who have seen diversity outreach programs diminish under the second administration of President Donald Trump.
Although the opportunities might have diminished, that does not diminish the talent of aspiring Black aviators.
