Daredevil Coleman

This daredevil pilot faced more challenges like racism and sexism on the ground than in the air during the 1920s.

Transcript

Paula: 0:00

For the Best Aerospace Era this is mansplaining. Here is the host Anthony L. Sealey

0:09

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Many names come to mind when you think about aerospace history like Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, or Chuck Yeager. These names come to mind for good reasons. Of course, in time I will cover the more household figures in upcoming Mansplaneing episodes. I myself like to delve into fray of history and find other figures and stories to cover here that are not as well known. Our subject today is one of those people, and she, yes, she was one of the first names on my list to make an episode for when I first decided to make this podcast. There is not a great deal of information out there. I finally gathered the correct sources to make a proper episode for the popular 1920s Barnstormer, known as Queen Bess Bessie Coleman. Here on mansplaining, I talk about fighter pilots, dog fights, airlines, and aerial First, there is more to aviation than just that aviators can put on a show like none. Other. Aviation can be fun and an exciting experience. If you have attended an air show, then you know what I'm talking about. These shows Mesmerize and inspire millions, as it did in the first few decades of the best aerospace era. These air show performers were testifying aviators, known as barnstormers. Bessie Coleman was one of these awesome early aviators or aviatrix. He performed in these air shows all across the country. First, let me tell you about the world she was born in and grew up in. So you can appreciate what she was able to achieve and overcome over a hundred years ago. Bessie Coleman was born in a cabin with a dirt floor in Atlanta, Texas in 1892. A town named by hundreds of African American migrants from Atlanta, Georgia, looking for work in the railroad industry. Coleman's mother, Suzanne was probably born a slave whose family was from Georgia. Her father was a mix of Indian and black who held from Indian territory in the West. They had 13 children together, and neither of them were educated or could write. The Coleman family moved to Waxahachie, Texas where the future Aviatrix would grow up. This was at a time when blacks and whites were segregated, a time of great violence, lynch mobs, and a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. Jim Crow laws of segregation were enforced vehemently in the south. Coleman had to walk miles to attend her classes at school that had one teacher for grades one through eight in a one room building. She was really good at math though. Cotton was the money maker in Waxahachie, Texas. Everything including schools were closed when it was time to harvest because everyone young and old was needed to pick the cotton in the fields. Her mother was an devout Christian and every Sunday was spent at church. Her father left the family to live in Oklahoma for a better and perceived safer life when she was young. Members of the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma hit it big when oil was discovered on their land. He may have wanted to get a piece of the fortune as he was half Native American, although it was anything but safe there. If you ever read the book Murders of the Flower Moon, or seen the movie then, you know what I mean? Her mother, Suzanne encouraged her children to read and emulate a few good improper white people like the Jones family, who employed her for housework and would give them extra food and clothing for her family. Bessie Coleman kept track of the family finances. She helped raise her younger sisters and was a source of entertainment for the household. The young, charismatic, confident, beautiful and independent, Bessie Coleman had ambition. She simply wanted to be somebody and did not see rual Texas as a place to achieve this goal. Her brothers had moved north to the perceived safe confines of the black communities of the south side of Chicago years before. This big city could provide her with the opportunities she was looking for. Thousands moved to northern cities for a better life. Black communities in the northern cities soared in the population in the early 19 hundreds. Coleman boarded a hot segregated train car that was also used for a smoking area by white passengers bound for Chicago in 1915. Chicago is a fun city to visit. It is one of my go-to cities for a quick day trip. The Chicago skyline today looked much different than it did when Coleman arrived. Although Wrigley Field was there as it was built a year prior to her arrival, Coleman moved in with her brothers on the south side of Chicago. She found work as a manicures at a salon. Her good looks helped get customers in the door as her table was at the front of the window. She made a life for herself in the fast growing city. This occupation enabled her to make friends and connections to the community. She even made enough to afford her own place. She enjoyed all that Chicago had to offer. However, she still longed to find a way to be somebody. She wanted to be famous. So how did a manicures just one day decide to learn how to fly? Here's how. In the autumn of 1919, about a month after the worst race riot in Chicago's history in July where 537 were injured and 38 lost their lives, her brother John came into the shop. Inebriated in ranting stories about his time in France. He served during the Great War with the all Black eighth Army National Guard. John was telling stories about the wonderful French women and how they even flew airplanes. I can't repeat the exact words he said here, but he pointed at his sister and the other women in the salon and said, none of you will ever do that. Now, I'm sure most people can relate to this. When one of your siblings taunts you and says you can't do something, you go and do it and prove them wrong. I've read in another source that she also overheard two pilots who served in World War I talking about their war stories at a club or a bar. But either way, she was also an avid newspaper reader and read many exciting stories from the skies over the battlefield of the Great War. This was it. She set her sights on becoming an Aviatrix, the first black female pilot. This was how she was gonna become famous and be somebody. There were only a small number of black aviators in the early years of the best aerospace era, so it'd be very difficult to find one to learn from. There were no white aviators willing to teach Coleman to fly. As you can imagine. However, the French were more welcoming. Coleman took classes to learn French at a school in downtown Chicago. Now how Coleman came up with enough money to travel all the way to France and pay for flight school along with room and board is unclear. She had many connections to the community through clients and churches. One major supporter of hers was Robert Abbott, founder of the African American. Newspaper, Chicago Defender. Either way, she got a passport and a visa. She changed her age to 24 on her passport, possibly because the cutoff age for flight school was 25. This trend of lying about her age will continue throughout her life. Promotions in the press often reported her as being 23 or 24, while Coleman was well into her thirties, but we are getting way ahead of ourselves here. In November of 1920, she set sail for France. She enrolled in a school and found a place to live nearby. While she was there, the airplane she learned to fly on was a Newport Type 82, a two sitter biplane from the same company that made fighter planes. During the Great War. The instructor would take her up and Coleman would lightly place her hands and feet onto controls. As the operator flew the airplane. Bessie Keman would feel the controls move through her hands and her feet as the airplane flew through the air. After seven months, she received the international license to fly. The Federation, aeronautic International, and I just wanna put in perspective how big of a deal. This is another aviation legend, which I mention here a lot named Eddie Rickenbacker. In his biography, he actually said he never actually received a pilot's license. He also said he never got a driver's license. And here is Bessie Coleman with a pilot's license that is recognized all around the world. While in France, she also went to Paris to have a personalized flight suit made so she could fly in style. Now there's another black aviator I profiled here named Eugene Bullard, who was also living in Paris. At this time, however, I have not found any evidence that they crossed paths. He probably would've bought her a drink. She may have known about Bullard. He was mentioned in a few black newspapers. During the war, Coleman would actually make two trips to Europe to advance their skills in the air. She went to Germany and learned some more aerial skills from a former World War I fighter pilot. After arriving back in the States, it was time to show off her piloting skills during an air show on September 3rd, 1921, in front of a New York crowd of between 1,003 thousand spectators. Coleman flew Curtis JN four biplane. She did not perform any stunts per the request of the airplane's owner. This flight was historic, however, as it was the first public flight of a black woman in the States, Coleman also showed off that she had the appearance and charisma to be the performer in future air shows. Which is definitely important to promoters. She was able to perform some more spirited flying in her second show in front of thousands in Memphis, Tennessee. Next. She performed in Chicago in front of around 2000, which included for the first time her family and friends. The rest of her family decided to leave Texas as well and move up to the safe confines of the black communities in South Side Chicago. A promotion for the event at Checkerboard Airdome said. Her flight will be patterned after American French, Spanish, and German methods. The French Nungesser start will be made. The climb will be after the Spanish form of Berta Costa and the turn that McMullen in the American Curtis, she will straighten out in the manner of Eddie Rickenbacker. These were some big names in aviation in the early 1920s. Those attending would be promised a defying airborne show Coleman flew a Curtis JN four and performed figure eights in the sky before diving down to 200 feet and climbing back up into the sky. The spectators gasped and then cheered as the performance went on. Some other stunts she performed were barrel rolls, and during a climb, she would also stall her engine and free fall and then restart the engine and recover the fearless daredevil. Aviatrix. Bessie Coleman knew how to put on a show. After landing, the crowd got a look at Coleman in her stylish flight suit. She waved to the cheering fans while striking her beautiful smile. Coleman began to gain more attention and was finally on her way to achieving her goal to be somebody. Promoters in the press took notice, although some seem more interested in the five three beautiful aviatrix herself. Then her flying skills. I have seen a few pictures of Coleman and she is very pretty. I also want to point out that in her performance career, Coleman would only perform in front of crowds of white and black. She once threatened to pull out of a show when she learned it was gonna be an all white crowd. The organizers conceded. Coleman stood by her convictions. Coleman was once cast in a movie. However, she walked off the set because of the negative portrayal of the black character. She was cast to play. She did more than just perform in the air. A prime goal of hers was to open a flight school to teach others in the black community to embrace aviation and to learn to fly. Not everyone is willing to learn French and travel halfway across the globe. Just to learn, she said in an article in the newspaper, the Chicago Defender, well, because I knew we had no aviators either man or woman, I thought it my duty to risk my life to learn aviating and to encourage flying among the men and women of the race who are so far behind the white man in this special line. I made up my mind to try. I tried and was successful. Colman's plan was use her fame and flying skills to encourage more African Americans to join the amazing aviation world. She also wanted to teach others in her community to fly. However, an airplane of own would be needed nothing could discourage Coleman from this goal. Not racism, not sexism, or even a plane crash. After finding a sponsor. Coleman acquired an airplane of her own in California. She would need this airplane to open up a flight school. It was a Curtis JN Jenny. The Army had a surplus of these two seater pipelines that were sold to the public. It was widely used by barnstormers mail carriers, crop dusters, you name it. Her ownership of this plane was short-lived. However, Coleman took off from Santa Monica, found for an aerial performance only 25 miles away in Palmer Park, where 10,000 spectators waited to see her stunts. Her engine stalled at 300 feet and the plane crashed. As I've said here many times on Mansplaneing, aviation was very dangerous, and crashes were not uncommon. At the beginning of the best aerospace era, coleman suffered a broken leg, three cracked ribs, and many cuts and bruises. She actually wanted to get into another plane so that she can go on and perform for the fans She sent a telegram to her family, friends, and fans that said, tell them all that as soon as I can walk, I'm going to fly in my faith and aviation and the usefulness of it will serve in fulfilling the destiny of my people. Coleman lectured at schools, colleges, and churches to promote interest in aviation among the black community. She showed a film of her flying in Europe and in the US at these lectures. This film is reportedly lost. Maybe there's a copy of this film in a dusty box somewhere in the archives of a college or a university somewhere. Hopefully it'll be found one day. She would need to find more sponsors and raise some more money to acquire another airplane of her own to open a flight school. Coleman filled in for a wing walker At an Orlando Florida show At Wing, Walker is a performer, often a woman who would walk along the wing and do tricks or jump off the plane. And parachute down to the crowd. And for added style points, she landed among the crowd. If you work in the airlines, you know the term wing walker means something much different. Today, Coleman was scheduled to perform this stunt once again at a Jacksonville, Florida show in the spring of 1926. Showed wing walk and jump from her very own airplane. This time, The airplane was another Curtis jn four Jenny Biplane, which was purchased and flown from Love Field in Dallas, Texas. The mechanic slash pilot who flew it out was named William d Wills. In preparation for her parachute jump, Coleman needed to have a look from the air to find a safe place for her to come down. Willis offered to take her up. Willis took the controls. While Coleman got up out of her seat to have a look around, she was five three. So she had to get up pretty high to look down. They were up at 3,500 feet as Coleman stood up and leaned over the side. This is when the Curtis suddenly nose dived. As the Curtis dived it flipped upside down, and Bessie Coleman fell out the airplane went into a tailspin and crashed. Neither survived. For the record, I don't like talking about fatal airplane crashes. And at the crash site of the airplane, a distraught responder lit up a cigarette. Which ignited the gasoline fumes and killed those. Trying to help. The cause of the crash was determined to have been a loose wrench that slid into the control gears, which jammed them in place, and some of the newspapers actually only reported the death of wills in the crash at Bessie's Colemen's Funeral, a Baptist pastor named Austin had these fitting words to say this girl was 100 years ahead of the race. She loved so well and by whom she was least appreciated. Bessie Coleman's story is as inspiring today as it was one a hundred years ago. She overcame racism. And sexism to be somebody consider the forces working against her. Remember, this was a time of great racial division. There were public places like libraries that she would be denied entry into. Also, don't forget, Bessie Coleman earned a pilot's license a year after women received the right to vote. I mentioned before that she performed in front of her family for the first time in Chicago. Among them was Bessie Coleman's 8-year-old nephew named Arthur Freeman. He was inspired by his aunt that day and he went on to become a Tuskegee Airman and served in World War ii. How awesome is that? And I guarantee he was not the only person who Bessie Coleman inspired 100 years ago. I hope her story inspires more in the future. As I said before, there's not a great deal of information out there about Bessie Coleman. There are a few good online articles like the one on women's history.org. I do recommend the book Queen Bess Daredevil. Aviator by Doris L. Rich. That's perhaps the best source. Now, if there are any manicures or beauty salon workers listening here and thinking about a career in aviation, I say go for it. And remember, there's always a light at the end of the runway.

Paula: 28:00

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