Bessie Coleman was the first African-American female aviator. She wowed the audience with her incredible flying skills. She was born on January 26, 1892 in a one-room cabin in Atlanta, Georgia to her parents George Coleman and Susan Coleman. When she was two years old, her father moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where he purchased land and built a three-room house in which two more daughters were born. Education was very limited for her when she was in eighth grade. She was in a one-room schoolhouse that closed when students were needed to help others pick cotton in the fields. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay After finishing school, she worked as a laundress and saved her money until 1910, when she left for Oklahoma to attend Langston University. She left after a year, due to lack of money. In Waxahachie, she worked as a laundress until 1915, when she moved to Chicago, Illinois, to live with her older brother. Within a few months, she became a manicurist and continued searching until 1920, when she set a goal: to become a pilot. She befriended several leaders of the African American community on Chicago's South Side and found a sponsor, Robert Abbott, an African American lawyer and newspaper publisher, who also founded The Chicago Defender. There were no African-American aviators around and where there was no white pilot for a teacher, she turned to Abbot who suggested she go to France. He said the French were not racist and were leaders in aviation. Later, Coleman traveled to France where she received pilot training at the best school in France and obtained the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI; international pilot's license) license on June 15. 1921. She traveled to Europe, gaining more flying experience so she could perform air shows. In 1923, Coleman purchased a small plane but it crashed on his way to his first air show. The plane was destroyed and Coleman was injured and hospitalized for three months. She returns to Chicago to recover. It takes him eighteen months to find backers for a series of shows in Texas. Her performance was so successful that she later had enough money to put down a deposit for a plane. Coleman departed for Orlando, Florida, to benefit from an exhibition for the Jacksonville Negro Welfare on May 1, 1926. Her pilot William D. Wills flew her. to Orlando but had to make three forced stopovers because his plane was very worn and poorly maintained. On April 30, 1926, Wills flew the plane in a test fight while Coleman sat in the other cockpit observing the area in which she was to fly and parachute the next day. Her seat belt was not fastened as she had to lean over the edge of the plane to choose the best sites for her program. At an altitude of a thousand feet, the plane split and then flipped, ejecting Coleman. Moments later, the wills crashed. Unfortunately, both were killed. She held three memorial services in Jacksonville, Orlando and Chicago, attended by thousands. His body was buried in Chicago's Lincoln Cemetery. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a personalized essay. Bessie Coleman is important to the history of :.