Bessie Coleman: Remembering the First Black Woman to Earn a Pilot License

• Bessie Coleman became the first African-American, female or male, to earn a pilot license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in June 1921
• She defied significant racial and gender discrimination to study at the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France
• Coleman died on April 30, 1926, during a rehearsal when the plane carrying her spun out of control and catapulted her to her death

Bessie Coleman became the first African-American to earn her pilot's license in 1921, subsequently touring the US and entertaining crowds with her aerial acrobatics.

Despite the significant racial and gender prejudice against Black people and women, she inspired her contemporaries with her boundless determination to fly.

Born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, US, the American aviator and a star of early aviation exhibitions and air shows became a role model to generations of pilots and an enduring symbol of perseverance.

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One of 13 children, Coleman grew up in Waxahachie, Texas, where her mathematical aptitude freed her from working in the cotton fields.

Education

She attended college in Langston, Oklahoma, briefly, before moving to Chicago, where she worked as a manicurist and restaurant manager. She later developed an interest in aviation.

Although discrimination thwarted her attempts to enter aviation schools in the United States, she learned French and in 1920 gained admittance into the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France.

Black philanthropists Robert Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender, and Jesse Binga, a banker, assisted with her tuition.

Becoming a pilot

On June 15, 1921, she became the first African-American, male or female, to glean an international pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.

In further training in France, she specialised in stunt flying and parachuting. She staged the first public flight by an African-American woman in America on Labour Day, September 3, 1922.

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Coleman, otherwise known as Queen Bess, toured schools to encourage Blacks' interest in aviation and raised money to fund a school to train Black aviators.

Before she could find her school, however, she passed during a rehearsal for an aerial show when the plane carrying her spun out of control, catapulting her 2,000 feet to her death on April 30, 1926, said the Britannica.

Ghanaian Woman Becomes First Female Neurosurgeon Trained in Ghana

Meanwhile, Dr Mabel Banson of the Neurosurgery Unit, Department of Surgery at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has become the first female neurosurgeon trained in Ghana.

She joins the ranks of Ghanaian women such as Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo who quite recently made history as the first woman to be appointed as the substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana.

Dr Banson's achievement has earned her accolades on social media, with Ben Dotsei Malor, Chief Editor - Dailies, UN News at United Nations, highlighting her trailblazing feat on his Facebook account.

Source: YEN.com.gh