Question: What Texan became the first black woman to hold a pilot’s license?
Answer: Bessie Coleman. She was born the tenth of thirteen children to sharecroppers in Atlanta, Texas, in 1892. She decided to become a pilot after working at a Chicago barber shop, where she heard stories from pilots who flew combat missions in Europe during World War I.
Because U.S. aviation schools would not admit blacks or women at the time, she learned French and traveled to France, where she earned her international pilot’s license in 1921. She eventually returned to the U.S. and became a celebrated stunt pilot, performing in airshows around the country.
