Bessie Coleman was born in 1892 in Atlanta, Texas, a small town in the northeast corner of the state. She grew up in Waxahachie, south of Dallas, in a large family that picked cotton to earn money. She loved school, especially math.

As a young woman, Coleman moved to Chicago, where two of her brothers lived, and found work doing manicures in a barbershop. There she heard soldiers who had come home from World War I tell stories about pilots and airplanes. She decided that she would learn to fly.

Flying schools in the United States would not accept her. She was a woman, and she was Black, and at that time either one was a reason many schools turned students away. Coleman did not give up. She took French classes at night, saved her money, and in 1920 sailed to France, where a flight school agreed to teach her.

In 1921, she earned an international pilot's license. She became the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license.

Back in the United States, Coleman made her living as a stunt pilot, flying loops and other daring tricks at air shows for large crowds. Newspapers called her "Queen Bess." She also spoke at schools and churches, telling audiences that the sky was open to everyone. Her biggest dream was to start a flying school for Black students, so that they would not have to cross an ocean to learn, as she had.

Coleman died in 1926, before she could open her school. But others carried her dream forward. In the years after her death, Black pilots started flying clubs named in her honor. Today she is remembered as a pioneer who opened a door that had been shut.