'Brave Bessie' ascended as true pioneer in the skies
JOHN CORNYN U.S. SENATOR

When Bessie Coleman looked at the distant stars above her childhood home in Texas, the possibility of human flight was just a theory. But by the time she was 30, this native Texan was herself an aviation star.

Among other achievements, Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to obtain a pilot's license. "I didn't realize I had two strikes against me," she said. "I remember hearing of a few women pilots before the war, but I had never seen one. The other strike against me was my color. No one had ever heard of a black woman pilot in 1919."

Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas, in 1892, the tenth of 13 children. When she was two, her family moved to Waxahachie, but her mother was soon left to raise the children on her own. Bessie was fortunate-her mother provided her with love, values, faith and the drive to achieve.

Bessie tackled school work while watching over younger sisters, doing laundry, tending to the garden and picking cotton. Her segregated school was a four-mile walk from home, but Bessie proved to be a top student and an avid reader.

Bessie's mother encouraged her to look to the world beyond her hometown. Bessie moved to Chicago and eventually got a job in a barber shop, doing nails. In her idle moments, she read about exploits of military pilots in World War I, and vowed to learn to fly herself.

An impossible dream? After she was rejected by aviation schools in the U.S., she got money together and moved to Paris. There, she took lessons in a rickety biplane and earned her pilot's license in 1921.

Her timing was perfect. She returned home and became a "barnstormer," an aerial daredevil and stunt pilot. Bessie's fans began calling her "Brave Bessie" or "Queen Bess," and she became the leading female flyer of the time.

She returned to Houston in 1925 for her home state flying debut. Her biographer, Doris L. Rich, described Bessie's show: "Ascending high above the clouds, she stalled her motor and dove to within a few feet of the ground before pulling up as the crowd let out a roar of relief and admiration. Interspersed with dives were barrel

rolls, figure eights and loop-the-loops.

Her aeronautic pyrotechnics sent a direct message to the spectators below: If I can do it, so can you."

Bessie Coleman died just a year later, in a plane accident in Florida. She was 34 years old.

Brave Bessie radiated qualities that Texans cherish-dream big, work hard, never quit and keep learning. She was also committed to opportunity for others, opposing segregation of audiences at her shows and working to start a flying school to train African American pilots.

Bessie's contributions to aviation are well remembered. In 1995, she was featured on a U.S. postal stamp. She's a member of the Women in Aviation Hall of Fame and the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame.

An eloquent tribute came from another Texan, astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to go into space: "I point to Bessie Coleman and say without hesitation that here is a woman, a being, who exemplifies the very definition of strength, dignity and beauty."

Bessie Coleman's brilliance was on display all too briefly. But even in that short time, she proved yet again that dreams can be realized. Bessie Coleman is a Texan whose story of achievement has inspired us all.