Bessie Coleman was the first African-American woman, and also the first woman of Native-American descent, to hold a pilot’s license. Coleman grew up in a cruel world of poverty and discrimination.

Bessie Coleman made the last payment on her new airplane and arranged for the second-hand Jenny to be flown to Jacksonville, Florida, site of her next air show. “Brave Bessie” was born in 1893 less ...

Early 20th-century America didn’t offer many career paths to people like Bessie Coleman. It was a time when women were ...