DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Atlanta, Texas isn't a place folks usually associate with aviation history — but that's exactly where this story takes off. Bessie Coleman was born there in 1892, the tenth of thirteen children born to tenant farmers Susan and George Coleman.
Thirteen children. Let that settle in for a moment. And out of all of them, it would be number ten who would one day look up at the sky and decide that's where she belonged.
When Bessie was just two years old, the family moved to Waxahachie — and years later, she followed her brothers north to Chicago in 1915. That city had a way of opening up the world for people, and for Bessie, it opened up the sky. She developed an interest in flying, and here's where the story gets its teeth.
She couldn't find a single soul in the United States willing to teach an African-American woman to fly. Not one. So Bessie Coleman did what a certain kind of determined person does when a door won't open — she walked through a different door entirely, on a different continent.
She went to France. She learned to fly there, and in 1921 she obtained her international pilot's license. When she came back to the United States, she was hailed as the first black woman to pilot an airplane.
Born to tenant farmers in a small Texas town, one of thirteen, and she had done what no one like her had ever done before. Bessie Coleman died in an air accident in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1926. She is buried near Chicago — far from Atlanta, Texas, but the marker that bears her name is right back where she started.
Some stories have to come home.
What the marker says
Bessie Coleman (1892-1926). The tenth of 13 children born to tenant farmers Susan and George Coleman, famed aviatrix Bessie Coleman was a native of Atlanta, Texas. The family moved to Waxahachie when Bessie was two years old. She followed her brothers to Chicago in 1915 and developed an interest in flying. Because she could find no one in the United States who would teach an African-American woman, Coleman learned to fly in France and obtained her international pilot's license in 1921. Upon her return to the United States, she was hailed as the first black woman to pilot an airplane. Bessie Coleman died in an air accident in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1926 and is buried near Chicago. (2002)