For the first time in the 96-year history of American Airlines, a flight recently made history when all of the people involved, from the ramp to the gate to the cockpit and cabin, were Black women.
Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to get a pilot’s licence, was honoured on a recent trip from Phoenix to Dallas to mark her 100th birthday.
Because flying wasn’t an option in the United States, Coleman had to learn to fly in France. She later rose to fame as a stunt pilot before her tragically in an aircraft tragedy in 1926.
On the celebratory aircraft was her great niece, Gigi Coleman.
“She would have been astonished and in awe, in my opinion. Even in 2022, I was amazed “said Gigi Coleman, who oversees Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars, an after-school programme designed to encourage youth to pursue their dreams of flying, particularly young people of colour.
She remarked, “My great-aunt got her licence two years before Amelia Earhart. “She didn’t have a place in history. Nobody was aware of her.”
According to Sisters of the Skies, a group for Black women airline pilots, there are less than 150 Black women pilots in the United States. Captain Beth Powell of American Airlines 737 is one of them.
In Powell’s whole career, “I’ve never had an all-Black female flight crew,” he added. “Today, representation is crucial because it gives people the confidence to believe in themselves. “I, too, can accomplish this.””