American Airlines recently hosted the Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars tour in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Coleman becoming the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license in 1921.
The airline honored Coleman's legacy with a flight from Dallas to Phoenix operated by an all-Black Female crew, including pilots, flight attendants, cargo team members and the aviation maintenance technician.
Born in Texas in the late 19th century, Coleman had to learn to fly in France as she wasn't allowed to in the U.S. She eventually became a skilled stunt performer before she was killed in a crash in 1926 at the age of 34.
"I think she would've been really amazed and in awe. I was in awe, and this is 2022," Gigi Coleman said of her great-aunt regarding the all-Black Female crew. Gigi now runs the Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars, an after-school program aimed at inspiring kids and especially young people of color to take flight.
"My great-aunt received her license two years before Amelia Earhart," she told CBS News. "She wasn't in the history books. No one knew about her."
According to the Black women airline pilot organization Sisters of the Skies, there are currently fewer than 150 Black women airline pilots in the U.S.
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