Bessie Coleman

A child of sharecroppers, ELIZABETH “BESSIE” COLEMAN dreamed of flying, but no aviation school in the United States would teach her. Undeterred, Bessie learned French and moved to France to learn to fly. She became the first black woman and Native American woman to earn a pilot’s license.

Read more of her story (and 14 other remarkable women) in this New York Times article

Learn more about Bessie in her biography from the National Women’s History Museum.