Bessie Coleman: One of the First Licensed African American Pilots

Bessie Coleman became one of the first African Americans to earn a pilot’s license and to seek a career in aviation.

For the African American community, Bessie Coleman became an enduring symbol of how a talented and highly motivated person could seek out a career in aviation.

Bessie Coleman earned, at the Caudron brothers’ aviation school in France, an internationally recognized pilot’s license on June 15, 1921.