The World's First Licensed African American

In honor of Black History Month I thought it would be interesting to see who the first black American pilot was. After Googling it I discovered a couple of, what I considered, amazing facts. The first black American pilot was licensed in 1920. I was thinking it would be later than that. Very cool. But, the most amazing fact I discovered was that the world's first licensed African American was a woman! Her name was Bessie Coleman. Below I have cut and pasted the short biography I found on Bessie Coleman at the website http://infoplease.com/

Bessie Coleman, Aviator
Born: 26 January 1892
Died: 30 April 1926 (internal injuries)
Birthplace: Atlanta, Texas
Best known as: The world's first licensed African-American pilot

Bessie Coleman was an early aviation pioneer for both African-Americans and women. Bessie Coleman grew up in Texas, moved to Chicago, and got interested in flying after her brothers returned from World War I. Failing to find anyone in Chicago who would teach flying to a black woman, Coleman determined to go abroad to get training -- a daring idea for that era. She moved to Paris, was accepted to aviation school, and on 15 June 1921 she received her pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. The certificate made her the world's first licensed black aviator. Coleman returned to the United States and began a barnstorming career, appearing at airshows across the country. She died in 1926 while flight-testing an open-cockpit plane; her co-pilot lost control of the aircraft and in the ensuing dive Coleman was tossed from the plane and plunged to her death.
Extra credit:
The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp honoring Bessie Coleman in 1995... Bessie Coleman's family line included some American Indian blood: her father George was part African-American and part Cherokee.
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Bessie Coleman Biography (Aviator) — Infoplease.com

Sit back and relax: Learn to fly witout fear

I read a great little article in this past weekend's edition of USA Weekend. It was about how to deal with fear of flying. If you want to know more just go to http://www.usaweekend.com/ and click on the Life & Style tab. The February 9th article is called "Sit back and relax: Learn to fly with out fear. It's just a short article but worth reading.

My son, Vinny, pictured here, was afraid of flying but his job required him to fly frequently and, somehow, he overcame it.

Baby Girl, The Astromoner

My granddaughter, Teagan, visited with me today. Teagan is 5 years old. She will be 6 on the first day of spring, my favorite day of the year. Teagan is my oldest grandchild and my only granddaughter. I always tell her she's my favorite granddaughter. And she is!

I recently had my kitchen redone and one of the walls is painted with black chalk board paint and set up as a message center. But, it has really turned out to be my grandchildren's art center. I like it better than a message center. Whenever my grandchildren visit they always draw some amazing picture or write their name or doodle something that I find amazing and admire it long after they have gone home.

Teagan has a wonderful imagination. I just love to see what she will come up with next. One time she drew directions from her house to my house on the chalk board. I didn't erase it for a long time. Teagan also likes to sing and dance and tell stories. She has give me untold pleasure since the day she was born. My nick name for her is "Baby Girl". Sometimes she gets mad when I call her Baby Girl and will demand that I call her Teagan. Lately she seems to have grown used to it.

Good thing, because I think it's a nick name that is going to stick.

Today, as usual, Teagan drew a very large picture on the chalk board. She told me it was the Earth. It looked like the Earth! She had even drawn several continents on the earth. The biggest continent she drew was North America and she explained to me that she lived there. I was blown away! Mind you, Teagan is only 5 years old. Teagan also drew the moon and a pink planet that she called the Pink Bunny planet. She told me that the pink bunnies ate pink grass on the Pink Planet. I found that extremely imaginative and amazing all at once. (Can you tell she's my favorite granddaughter? :)

Finally, Teagan said she wanted to draw stars but she told me she had trouble doing it. So, of course, Grammie came to the rescue. I drew a 5 point star and showed her how to do it. She was intrigued and ran to get the step stool so she could practice drawing stars above the Earth. She caught on very quickly and was very pleased with herself. She drew lots of stars in the universe.

To date this is my favorite drawing on the chalk board. I will not erase it for a while. I think someday Baby Girl will make a perfect Air Companion. Don't you?