This Month Especially . . . Remembering The Other Queen Bess
By DONALD DeMARCO
Historians are well acquainted with Elizabeth I, the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Queen Bess, as she was called, was the Queen of England and Ireland from 1588 until her death in 1603.
The “Queen Bess” who is the subject of this article should be far better known than she is at present. She was not a queen in the traditional sense of the term, but she was a “queen of the skies.” She was the first Afro-American and Native American woman to hold a pilot’s license.
But her story is more about courage and succeeding against formidable opposition than anything else, and it is especially relevant during Black History Month.
Bessie, as she is known (byname for Elizabeth), was born on July 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, and raised in Waxahachie in that same state along with 12 brothers and sisters. To earn a little extra money, she helped her mother pick cotton and wash laundry.
By the time she was 18 she had saved enough money to enroll in the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Okla. She was a student there, however, for just one semester when her savings ran out.
Her brothers fought in World War I and came home with exciting stories about pilots and the planes they flew. At the time, Bessie was a manicurist in a barber shop. But the stories she heard about adventures in the sky inspired her to become a pilot.
The most famous of all pilots, Charles A. Lindbergh, would say, after his legendary solo flight to Paris, “Pilots are drawn to flying because it’s a perfect combination of science, romance, and adventure.”
Bessie applied to various flight schools across the country, a futile exercise since she had two strikes against her: She was a woman, and she was black. No school would accept her. Rather than accept a third strike and give up, she studied French at night and was accepted at the Caudron Brothers’ School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France.
Robert S. Abbott, publisher of the Chicago Weekly Defender, had suggested France as a training spot for her because, as he put it, the French still possessed a kind of “aero mania” and were more liberal in their attitudes toward women and “people of color.”
After seven months there she received her international pilot’s license on June 15, 1921. She then returned to the United States.
In 1922 she performed the first public flight by an Afro-American woman. Ever daring and always willing to test the odds, she did stunts in the air, her specialty being loop-the-loops and making the figure eight in the sky.
She barnstormed the country doing air shows, giving flight lessons, and encouraging black women to take up flying. Her enthusiasm for flying covered a broad spectrum.
In 1923, her plane’s engine suddenly stopped in midair and crashed to the ground. Bessie suffered a broken leg, a few cracked ribs, and cuts on her face. Always the trooper, she continued performing dangerous tricks until 1925. “You’ve never lived till you’ve flown,” she maintained.
But she continued to test fate.
Charles Lindbergh claimed that he would be willing to die if he could fly for ten years. Bessie Coleman claimed that “if I could create the minimum of my plans and desires, there shall be no regrets.” Lindbergh passed away at age 72. Bessie was not so lucky.
On April 30, 1926, Bessie Coleman and a test pilot by the name of William Wills embarked on a test flight. A wrench got caught in the engine, preventing the pilot, Wills, from steering the plane. The aircraft fell to the ground from a distance of approximately 3,000 feet. Both perished in the fall. Bessie was 34.
The following year, Lindbergh created aviation history as the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
What Lindbergh said about himself applies perfectly to the life of Elizabeth Coleman:
“Success is not measured by what a man accomplishes, but by the opposition he has encountered and the courage with which he has maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.”
Bessie established a legacy. She had soared to heights that were, at that time, unknown to people of color. She was, indeed, an inspiration to everyone. In 1931 The Challenger Pilots’ Association started a tradition of flying over Bessie’s grave each year. The U.S. Post Office honored her in 1995 with a stamp. In 2003 the U.S. Mint memorialized her with a special quarter.
Bessie should also be especially remembered every November, which is U.S. Aviation History Month and celebrates all the contributions America made to the field of aviation.
Bessie will not be forgotten.
- + + (Dr. Donald DeMarco is professor emeritus, St. Jerome’s University, and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College. He is the author of 41 books.)