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SN15 - Bessie Coleman
42 Plays2 months ago
In honor of Black History Month, we bring you the story of Bessie Coleman—who is known for being the first African American female pilot. Brave Bessie became a pioneer and inspiration for women of color who demanded and deserved more.
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Sam's Intro Anxiety
00:00:20
Jeff Rogers
Just want you to know that the anxiety that you just put on me, Jeff said it was my job to do the
Podcast Introduction & Black History Month
00:00:24
Jeff Rogers
intro this time. So hey, welcome to down the rabbit hole with Jeff and Sam. This is our sticky note. It is happy Monday. Happy Monday and it's black history month.
Celebrating Bessie Coleman
00:00:35
Jeff Rogers
It is. So we're going to share some of our favorite stories. This is one of my favorite stories, and it celebrates Black History Month. So that's what we're going to do. Every Monday, we do a little show, just a little something to give you. And you know, the regular shows on Thursday. But every Monday, you're going to get a little sticky note show, and this is one of them. Could you say that one more time? No. OK, well, you just took like the wind out of my entire first paragraph, but here goes it.
00:01:04
Jeff Rogers
ah sir So this story is wonderful and it kicks off our theme of powerful badass women of color this month in Black History Month. As we all know, Jeffrey loves himself a strong, powerful female in some ways. I don't do these stories very much, so I hope that I will do this justice and capture a small piece of the legacy that she left for those who lived during her time and all who came after her.
Bessie Coleman's Early Life
00:01:31
Jeff Rogers
Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, which I didn't even know existed, in 1892. Not only was Bessie African-American, but her father also had Native American grandparents. She grew up facing all the horrors of racism that Texas could throw her way. When she began school at the age of six, it was held in a run-down, one-room wooden shack four miles from Bessie's home.
00:01:56
Jeff Rogers
They rarely had anything to write with or on, but that didn't stop her from wanting more from her life. But her early life was dotted with the fear of the African American men from surrounding counties being lynched at an alarming rate and her father abandoning the family to return to the Cherokee Nation.
Dreams of Flying
00:02:15
Jeff Rogers
At the age of 23, she left Texas to join her brothers in Chicago.
00:02:21
Jeff Rogers
Her hopes of a better life were quickly smothered when she realized that life was no easier in the segregated windy city than it was in Texas. By 27 years old, she was working as a manicurist and still dreaming of becoming something more. Her brother told her stories of his time in World War I, and she listened to him talk about the French woman flyers and decided that that's all she wanted to do.
00:02:47
Jeff Rogers
However, American forces didn't accept black men in aviation. they were If they didn't accept black men in aviation, they would never accept a black woman. She sought advice from every angle, but was turned away by every flying school because of her race and because of her gender.
Aviation Journey in France
00:03:10
Jeff Rogers
As a final attempt, she turned to Robert Abbott, the owner of the Chicago Defender newspaper, which we heard about in one of our stories last time, and one of the first African-American millionaires. He encouraged her to learn French and make her way to France where Black people received more respect than in the US. She took his advice after becoming fluent in French at the Burleit School in the Chicago Loop.
00:03:37
Jeff Rogers
She withdrew her savings and added it to the money donated by Abbott. On November 20th, 1920, she made her way to France. She was accepted into the Caudron School of Aviation that was well known and owned by renowned builders of World War II aircraft.
First African-American Woman Pilot
00:03:53
Jeff Rogers
Can I just say one world one world she was not only like, oh, I've got to go to France to learn how to fly.
00:03:59
Jeff Rogers
Oh, I have to learn how to speak French. Okay. Here I go. And she did it. She did it. She did. Rockstar. Right. And then within seven months of starting the school, seven months, Bessie became the first African-American to earn her pilot's license. Boom. She had been the only person of color in her class. And although she had witnessed many of her classmates die during training accidents, she persisted.
00:04:23
Jeff Rogers
Yes, she did.
Bessie's Impact and Advocacy
00:04:25
Jeff Rogers
And upon her return to the United States in September of 1921, she was met by scores of reporters and she was honored and she was celebrated. She was even invited to attend a musical where the entire audience, including several hundred white people, gave her a standing ovation for her accomplishments.
00:04:45
Jeff Rogers
She returned to Europe in 1922 to advance her training. She flew with the French for two more months, then spent 10 weeks in Berlin where she flew with German military aces. Over the next few years, she performed countless air shows, the first of which almost 3,000 attendees were.
00:05:05
Jeff Rogers
She continued to exhale, spreading her message and encouragement to other African American women. She refused to perform her shows in venues that were not desegregated.
Tragic End & Lasting Legacy
00:05:17
Jeff Rogers
good for her she is such a badass She achieved her goal of becoming ah barnstorming a barnstorming pilot which elevated her status with the daring routines of spiraling, inverting the planes, and even allowing trained flyers to walk out on the wings of the planes mid-flight. She was a sensation. On April 30, 1926, Coleman and her mechanic were performing a test flight the day before a show when tragedy struck.
00:05:53
Jeff Rogers
As her mechanic flew the plane, Coleman was not belted in because she was up surveying for a safe place place for a parachute landing. At 3,500 feet, a loose wrench got lodged in the controls and the plane plummeted. Coleman was thrown from the aircraft and fell to her death, and the plane and Willis crashed down behind her.
00:06:15
Jeff Rogers
Her funeral was attended by 10,000 mourners and presided over by
Bessie Coleman's Inspirational Tributes
00:06:21
Jeff Rogers
Ida B. well Wells. Well known and respected, outspoken member of the community for equal rights. For years after her death, African American pilots from Chicago would do an annual flyover to drop flowers over the grave of Brave Bessie.
00:06:38
Jeff Rogers
In 1977, a group of all African-American female pilots established the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club. In 1992, a Chicago Council resolution requested the US Postal Service issue a Bessie Coleman stamp, noting, quote, Bessie Coleman continues to inspire untold thousands, even millions of young persons with her sense of adventure, her positive attitude, and her determination to succeed.
00:07:08
Jeff Rogers
Bessie! Oh, she's a badass. Right? Just take it down. I don't remember her from school. Like, I don't remember learning that in school. I don't remember anything from school, so it doesn't help. Bessie.
Perseverance Through Challenges
00:07:24
Jeff Rogers
So I was telling you before we recorded it, and I don't really know the story exactly, so just kind of like winging it here a little bit. But when she was working as a manicurist,
00:07:36
Jeff Rogers
her brother came in to the shop that she was working in and I think he was like a little bit tipsy or something and he was kind of bragging to her that he got into the armed forces like Ooh, I get to, you know, serve in the armed forces and kind of essentially saying to her, this is your gig. Like, you're gonna just be a manicurist in kind of that way, right? And I think maybe, you know, your siblings, you always wanna be like, oh, thank you for telling me that it's on. You know what I mean? i know you're talking about my siblings and i never And she did it. She did, i thought I like the way you said it. She said,
00:08:19
Jeff Rogers
brush your hands off and said, Oh my beer. And she did. She went and got it. And then she learned French. Boom.
Conclusion & Teaser for Future Stories
00:08:28
Jeff Rogers
I mean, but the the perseverance like her to go to every school, every flight school that she could imagine and be like, please, I would like to do this.
00:08:37
Jeff Rogers
and to be turned away again and again and again. And then to seek out one man who she was like, you know what? Might as well give it a shot. Yeah, he's powerful and famous in the community, but I might as well. And he did, he was like, you know what? I'll do this. And he supported her. He helped her. He added like his financial wealth to get her where she needed to be. And you just so inspiring.
00:09:07
Jeff Rogers
So that's our sticky note for the day. Thank you for listening. And we're going to have more of these coming at you. I got one I'm planning right now. It's very moment. That's it. Thank you for listening. Happy Monday. Happy Monday.