Women Aviators (5 page)

When Bessie arrived in New York the following September, she was surprised at the attention she received from the newspapers. The Harlem Renaissance had exploded in New York, with attention focused on African American writers and entertainers. Everyone wanted to meet Bessie, who was part of just a handful of American women pilots and the only African American among them. She had always wanted to amount to something, and now she had.

Bessie Coleman was born January 26, 1892, in the northeast Texas town of Atlanta, the tenth of thirteen children born to Susan and George Coleman. The family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, when she was two years old. George, a tenant farmer, built a three-room house for his family. All the Colemans worked in the cotton fields when it was time for the harvest. The children's schools, which were for African Americans only, even shut down so that every student could work in the fields. The work was backbreaking and earned them little money, and Bessie dreamed of a different life.

When she was seven years old, Bessie's father left for Indian Territory (which later became Oklahoma) to the north of Texas. In addition to being African American, he was at least half Choctaw or Cherokee. George was tired of living life in segregated Texas. In Indian Territory, he would have full citizenship. But Susan refused to uproot the family and follow him.

With her older sons leaving as well, it was up to Susan Coleman to support her four remaining daughters, all of whom were younger than nine years of age. She found a job as a cook and housekeeper with the Jones family, kind employers who sent her home with sacks of flour and meat. The Jones family also
had daughters and gave the Coleman girls their hand-me-down clothing. Although many housekeepers lived with the families they worked for in those days, the Jones family allowed Susan to live at home with her children.

Still, Susan worked long hours, so Bessie took care of her sisters and the home. She and her sisters attended a one-room schoolhouse for eight years, walking four miles each way. Bessie's best subject was math. When her sisters fell ill, she had to miss school to care for them. She supplemented her education by borrowing books from the traveling wagon library. Sometimes she acted out the stories for her sisters. Bessie read books such as
Uncle Tom's Cabin
and biographies of famous African Americans such as Booker T. Washington.

When she became a little older, Bessie began making extra money by doing laundry, as her mother did. She picked up the laundry weekly, which often required toting the clothes more than five miles. Susan let Bessie keep the money she earned, and these funds allowed her to go to college—the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in the all-black town of Langston, Oklahoma. College was expensive, however, and Bessie was forced to drop out after the first semester, when her money ran out.

Bessie briefly returned to Texas but knew the town of Waxahachie had nothing to offer her. As soon as she raised the money, she moved to Chicago, where two of her brothers lived. Walter worked as a Pullman porter. John was reported to be unemployed, but he may have also worked for gangster Al Capone.

Bessie had had enough of housekeeping and laundry jobs. Instead, she found work as a manicurist at a barbershop on State Street. The lively South Side area where she worked, referred to as “the Stroll,” was later called Chicago's “Black Wall Street.”
Businessmen, gangsters, and jazz musicians were frequent clients of hers.

Both of Bessie's brothers fought in World War I. When they returned, they talked about what they had seen, particularly the airplanes. Her brother, John, teased her about how French women could be pilots, but she couldn't. She didn't think that was right. She decided she would be a pilot.

After Bessie had achieved her goal, she realized that the attention and acclaim were nice, but they didn't pay the bills. They also wouldn't help her achieve her dream of opening an aviation school for African Americans. She knew the only way to make a living from flying would be through entertaining people. Unfortunately, she needed more skills. She returned to Europe for six more months of advanced training in France, Holland, and Germany.

Bessie decided to create an image of herself that would attract attention and help her to make money from flying. With her small height of only five feet, three and a half inches, a dashing military-type uniform made her look important as she made her flying debut on September 3, 1922, at an air show at New York's Curtiss Field. Robert Abbott and his newspaper, the
Chicago Defender
, sponsored the show, calling Bessie, “the world's greatest woman flyer.” She did more than just fly overhead—she did figure eights, loop-the-loops, barrel rolls, and other barnstorming tricks guaranteed to draw gasps from the crowds. She became “Queen Bess, Daredevil Aviatrix.”

Word of “Brave Bessie” and “Queen Bess” spread. Whenever she performed, the crowds lined up. Like many barnstormers, she flew an old Jenny (World War I surplus US Army Curtiss JN-4). She concentrated on air shows in the North at first, gradually moving into the segregated South for performances. In 1925, she debuted in her home state of Texas. She performed in
Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and any small town with a field, even Waxahachie. She drew both white and black crowds, but she put her foot down about the people using segregated gates to enter the show.

Wherever she went, she encouraged women and African Americans to learn to fly. But Bessie still didn't have enough money to open a flight school. Once she had to replace her own airplane after her Jenny crashed when the motor stalled at 300 feet (90 meters). The accident also resulted in a badly broken leg, three broken ribs, and various cuts. As soon as Bessie was able, she began supplementing her income with lectures, parachute jumping, and wing walking. She even opened a beauty shop in Orlando, Florida, to make money.

When the new Jenny she ordered from Curtiss Airfield in Dallas was finally paid off, she had it flown to Jacksonville, Florida, where her next show was to be held on May 1, 1926. The night before the show, she and her mechanic, William Will, took the plane up. Bessie rode as a passenger so that she could look over the side of the plane for good places to make parachute jumps. They were flying at about 80 miles an hour (130 kilometers per hour) at 3,500 feet (1,100 meters). Witnesses noticed an acceleration before the plane went into a nosedive. When the plane flipped, Bessie fell out and died when she hit the ground. Will struggled to gain control of the plane but couldn't. He crashed the plane about a thousand yards from where Bessie's body lay. He later died. Upon investigation, the cause of the crash was found to be a loose wrench that had jammed into the instruments.

In Orlando, more than 5,000 people paid their respects to Bessie before her body traveled by train to Chicago. There, 10,000 more said good-bye to Queen Bess. Only 34 years old, she didn't live to see her dream come true, but it did happen three years
later, when the Bessie Coleman Aero Club was established. The school educated many outstanding African American pilots, including Willa Brown and the Tuskegee Airmen.

Bessie Coleman was not forgotten. In 1931 and for many years afterward, the Challenger Air Pilots Association of Chicago and later the Tuskegee Airmen did a flyover of Lincoln Cemetery on Bessie's birthday. Like Harriet Quimby, Bessie was honored with her own postage stamp in 1995. Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley named a major road at O'Hare Airport after her, calling it Bessie Coleman Drive. Today, Bessie Coleman's brief life continues to inspire others.

N
OT ALL OF AVIATION'S PIONEERS
died tragic deaths or set records. Some were just aviators who demonstrated their skills and talent day after day through the work they did with little fanfare. These people were the foundation of early aviation. Anita “Neta” Snook was one of those people. She accomplished much as an early aviator, but this achievement is often overshadowed by the fact that she taught the most famous woman pilot in the world how to fly.

Neta Snook was born February 14, 1896, in Mount Carroll, Illinois. She had a happy childhood and loving parents. Even as a
toddler, she was drawn to anything mechanical. She enjoyed building toy cars and toy boats instead of playing with the usual dolls that girls were expected to enjoy.

The appearance of automobiles during Neta's childhood thrilled both her and her father. He bought a car when she was nine, and they spent many hours driving. Sometimes, her father let her steer from her perch on his lap. They also studied the engine together, learning how it worked and how to make repairs.