On July 21, 1921, Bessie Coleman received her pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in France — becoming the first Black American and the first Native American woman to hold a pilot's license anywhere in the world.

No American flight school would admit her. She had grown up in Waxahachie, Texas, the tenth of thirteen children, picking cotton with her mother and siblings. She moved to Chicago, worked as a manicurist, saved money. Robert Abbott, publisher of the Chicago Defender, suggested she go to France — the only place that would teach her.

She spent the money she had saved, enrolled at the Caudron Brothers school in Le Crotoy, and completed the training in seven months. She returned to the United States in 1921 as a licensed pilot and began a career as a barnstormer and exhibition flyer, performing at air shows for audiences that included many Black Americans who had never seen someone who looked like them fly.

She refused to perform at any event where Black spectators were required to use separate gates or seating. She used her platform to speak about racial equality at every opportunity.

She died on April 30, 1926, at 34, when the plane she was to perform in the following day went into an uncontrolled roll during a practice run. She had not strapped in because she wanted to look over the side to scout the landing area.