Profiles of Famous Women was written by
Michael Cawthra, teacher at Kyffin Elementary School, Golden (CO) and former
Teachers Network web mentor.
March is Women's History Month!
Read about the accomplishments of these famous women.
Bessie Coleman
As a young woman, Bessie Coleman was interested in flying. She searched for a place to learn to fly. But being a black woman, she found the two greatest barriers to her following her dream, racism and gender discrimination. Ms. Coleman went to Europe and was trained by French and German aviators and becamed a licensed pilot in 1921. After gaining an international license in 1922, she returned to the U.S. as a barnstormer. As the first African-American aviator, she was called "Brave Bessie." In Jacksonville, Florida, she was planning to open a school for black youths to learn to fly, but she tragically died when her controls jammed.