40 Fun Facts About Bessie Coleman

Coleman Mons, a mountain named for Bessie Coleman in 2021, borders a heart-shaped region on which world?

Pluto gained Coleman Mons in 2021, when astronomers named a mountain that may be a volcano after the pilot. It sits on the edge of Tombaugh Regio, the dwarf planet's famous heart.

Turned away by every American aviation school, Bessie Coleman sailed to which country in 1920 to earn her license?

France gave Coleman the training no American school would: she earned her license there in June 1921, within seven months, as the only student of color in her class.

Bessie Coleman earned her international pilot's license two years before which famous American flier received hers?

Amelia Earhart was issued her license in May 1923, nearly two years after Coleman's. Earhart was only the 16th woman in the United States to hold one.

Which NASA astronaut carried a photograph of Bessie Coleman into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992?

Mae Jemison took the photo on the mission that made her the first African-American woman in space. She also packed a West African statuette.

Which toy brand added a Bessie Coleman doll to its Inspiring Women series in 2023?

Barbie maker Mattel gave Coleman her own doll in 2023, almost a century after she toured America's air shows.

The US Mint honored Bessie Coleman in 2023 as part of its American Women series on which coin?

Quarter designs in the American Women series honored five women a year from 2022 through 2025. Coleman's was unveiled at an event at the Federal Aviation Administration.

Bessie Coleman was born in 1892 in a small town called Atlanta, which lies in which US state?

Texas has its own Atlanta, named for the Georgia city by early settlers, where Coleman was born to a family of sharecroppers.

Bessie Coleman saved for flying lessons while doing which job at the White Sox Barber Shop in Chicago?

Manicurist was a trade Coleman mastered: she won a contest naming her the best in Black Chicago. Customers home from World War I filled her head with flying stories.

What did Bessie Coleman dream of opening for young Black Americans, a goal cut short by her death in 1926?

A flight school for Black students was Coleman's goal, because none in America would train them. Flying clubs named for her carried the idea on after her death.

Bessie Coleman was the first Black woman, and the first woman of which other heritage, to earn a pilot's license?

Native American ancestry came through her father, George, who may have had Cherokee or Choctaw grandparents. He left the family for Indian Territory while Bessie was still a child.

As a child of sharecroppers, Bessie Coleman left school each harvest season to help pick which crop?

Cotton harvests pulled Coleman out of class every season. The rest of the year she walked miles to a segregated one-room schoolhouse.

Which tech company marked Bessie Coleman's 125th birthday in 2017 with a homepage illustration in her honor?

Google posted a Doodle of Coleman on January 26, 2017, exactly 125 years after her birth to a sharecropping family.

Which federal agency added Bessie Coleman to its long-running Black Heritage series in 1995?

US Postal Service designers put Coleman on a 32-cent stamp, the 18th in the Black Heritage series. Chicago's city council had asked for the stamp three years earlier.

Bessie Coleman refused to fly at any air show unless its organizers agreed to which condition?

Black spectators were admitted or Coleman stayed on the ground. In the town where she grew up, she flew only after organizers let everyone use the same entrance.

A 2020s European comic series imagines a pilot named Bessie Coleman smuggling liquor for which Prohibition-era gangster?

Al Capone hires the comic's Bessie Coleman as a bootlegging pilot. The real Coleman made her money honestly: her lectures drew big crowds and paid more than her flying.

Bessie Coleman's move north in 1915 made her part of which mass movement of six million Black Americans?

Great Migration travelers left the rural South for northern cities like Chicago, where Coleman arrived at 23 hoping to make something of herself.

Known to air-show crowds as Queen Bess, Bessie Coleman was given which first name at birth?

Elizabeth Coleman became Bessie at home and Queen Bess on the air-show circuit. Her daredevil stunts earned her a second nickname, Brave Bessie.

Bessie Coleman earned her living flying loops and figure eights for paying crowds, a 1920s trade known by which name?

Barnstorming was one of the few paid jobs in 1920s aviation, with pilots touring to sell rides and perform stunts. Charles Lindbergh also began his flying career that way.

Which newspaper published a belated obituary of Bessie Coleman in 2019 as part of its Overlooked series?

The New York Times ran the obituary 93 years late. Its Overlooked feature honors remarkable people whose deaths the paper's editors had passed over since 1851.

African-American aviators traditionally honor Bessie Coleman by dropping what over her Chicago grave during flyovers?

Flowers fall on Lincoln Cemetery during the flyovers. Chicago's Black pilots began flying over her grave each year in 1931, five years after she died.

Who goaded Bessie Coleman into flying by teasing that women overseas were already piloting airplanes?

Her brother came home from World War I service and taunted her that women abroad could fly. Coleman took it as a dare and set out to learn.

Which civil rights pioneer led Bessie Coleman's funeral in Chicago, where about 10,000 mourners filed past her coffin?

Ida B. Wells, the journalist who had exposed lynching in the South, presided over the service. Coleman's death drew little notice in most media but was widely covered in the Black press.

Bessie Coleman mostly flew which army-surplus biplane, sold off cheaply after World War I?

Curtiss Jenny trainers flooded the market after the war, some selling for as little as $50 still in their crates. Their slow, stable flight made them ideal for stunts.

In 1921 the Air Service News hailed Bessie Coleman using which now-dated word for a female pilot?

Aviatrix was the newsletter's word when Coleman came home in September 1921, newly licensed and greeted by scores of reporters.

Which Disney Junior cartoon honored Bessie Coleman with a toy pilot named Itty Bitty Bess in 2015?

Doc McStuffins centers on a girl who fixes toys. In the episode she treats Itty Bitty Bess, a rusty tin pilot modeled on Coleman, so the toy can fly again.

Bessie Coleman rode without a seat belt on her final flight because she was scouting the ground for which stunt?

A parachute jump was planned for the next day's show, so Coleman leaned out unbelted to study the field below. When the plane suddenly dived and flipped, nothing held her in.

Which stray object is believed to have jammed the controls of the plane in Bessie Coleman's fatal 1926 crash?

A wrench left loose after engine work is thought to have slid into the controls. Her mechanic had already made three forced landings while ferrying the poorly kept plane to the show.

Which US carrier honored Bessie Coleman in 2022 with a flight crewed entirely by Black women?

American Airlines filled every role on the flight with Black women, from the pilots and flight attendants to the cargo team and the maintenance technician.

Bessie Coleman took a second job managing which kind of Chicago eatery to save money for flying lessons?

A chili parlor, small but profitable, topped up the savings Coleman later withdrew to pay for her training abroad.

Bessie Coleman's first American air show honored the 369th Infantry, a Black regiment known by which nickname?

Harlem Hellfighters spent 191 days in front-line trenches, more than any other American unit of World War I. Coleman's show in their honor came in September 1922.

In which Florida city did Bessie Coleman die in 1926 while rehearsing for a Negro Welfare League air show?

Jacksonville held the first funeral service before her body went home to Chicago. A bronze plaque with her likeness now marks the school built on the airfield where she took off.

The National Aviation Hall of Fame, which enshrined Bessie Coleman in 2006, sits in which Ohio city?

Dayton, the Wrights' hometown and self-styled Birthplace of Aviation, has been the hall's home since 1962. Coleman joined it 80 years after her death.

Which Chicago Defender publisher urged Bessie Coleman to train abroad and publicized her quest in his newspaper?

Robert S. Abbott had founded the paper in 1905 with a 25-cent investment and became one of the first African-American millionaires. He also helped pay for her trip.

Bessie Coleman's savings ran out after a single term at which historically Black university in Oklahoma?

Langston, then called the Colored Agricultural and Normal University, enrolled her at 18. It remains Oklahoma's only historically Black college.

Which Dutch aircraft designer, builder of Germany's feared World War I fighters, did Bessie Coleman visit in 1922?

Anthony Fokker met Coleman in the Netherlands, and she went on to his company's German works for extra training from one of its chief pilots.

Flying clubs named for Bessie Coleman staged America's first all-Black air show in 1931 on which holiday?

Labor Day 1931 drew a crowd of 15,000 to the show, organized by the Bessie Coleman Aero Club that pilot William J. Powell had founded in her memory.

The cast of which landmark all-Black Broadway musical presented Bessie Coleman with a loving cup for her achievements?

Shuffle Along also welcomed her as guest of honor in 1921, when the whole audience, white patrons included, rose to give her a standing ovation.

Bessie Coleman earned her wings at a well-respected aviation school run by which pioneering aircraft-building family?

Caudron founders Gaston and René set up their factory beside a firm, flat beach that was ideal for flying and were teaching pupils there by 1910.

Which Chicago banker, founder of the city's first Black-owned bank, helped finance Bessie Coleman's training abroad?

Jesse Binga opened his private bank in 1908 because many banks excluded Black customers. It failed in the Great Depression.

Bessie Coleman learned to fly in a failure-prone 27-foot Type 82 biplane built by which aircraft maker?

Nieuport trainers like hers were steered with a vertical stick as thick as a baseball bat and a rudder bar under the feet. She saw a fellow student die in a crash during the course.