The Achievement

Two people define the early history of Black aviation in America, and their stories share one essential detail: the United States said no, so they flew for France.

Eugene Bullard (1917): First Black combat pilot. Flew missions for the French Air Service during World War I. Decorated by France. When the United States entered the war, American military authorities refused to allow him to fly for his birth country.

Bessie Coleman (1921): First Black woman to earn a pilot's license. Earned her certification from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in France after American flight schools denied her on the grounds of both race and gender.

Both achievements required crossing the Atlantic. Both illustrate a pattern that runs across many fields: Black Americans going abroad to access what American institutions refused to provide.

Bessie Coleman: Life Before the Sky

Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, one of thirteen children. Her father was of Cherokee and African American descent; her mother was Black. The family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, when she was young.

She walked four miles each way to a segregated school. She attended the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Oklahoma for one semester before finances required her return home.

In her early twenties, she moved to Chicago, where she worked as a manicurist on the South Side. She read newspaper accounts of aviators returning from World War I and decided she wanted to fly.

She applied to flight schools in the United States. Every one refused her, some because she was Black, some because she was a woman, all for at least one of those reasons.

Robert Abbott, publisher of the Chicago Defender, encouraged her to learn French and apply to aviation schools in France. She did both.

In 1920, she traveled to France and enrolled in the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy. On June 15, 1921, she earned her pilot's license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, becoming the first Black woman in the world to do so.

Eugene Bullard: The First Black Combat Pilot

Eugene Jacques Bullard was born in Columbus, Georgia, on October 9, 1895. His father was of West Indian descent; his mother was Creek Indian. Growing up in Georgia, he witnessed racial violence and decided at a young age that Black Americans could not expect justice in the American South.

Around 1912, at approximately 17, he stowed away on a ship. He made his way through Scotland and eventually to France.

He was in France when World War I began in 1914. He enlisted in the French Foreign Legion and fought at Verdun, one of the war's most devastating battles. He was wounded and decorated.

In 1916, he trained as a pilot with the French Air Service. By 1917, he was flying combat missions, the first Black combat pilot in history.

When the United States entered the war, Bullard applied to fly for American forces. American military authorities refused him.

After the war, he remained in France, where he became a jazz musician and the owner of a celebrated Parisian nightclub. He received the Legion of Honor from the French government. In the United States, he was largely unknown until after his death.

The Path to a License

Coleman's path to her 1921 license was deliberate. She learned French to access a system that excluded her at home. She then pursued advanced training beyond the basic license before returning to the United States.

Back in the United States, she barnstormed, performing aerial stunts at airshows across the country. She was a known figure in Black communities across the South and Midwest. She enforced one rule: she would not perform before segregated audiences.

She had a longer goal: opening a flight school for Black students in the United States, one that would give others the training she had to cross an ocean to access.

On April 30, 1926, during a practice run in Jacksonville, Florida, her plane went into an uncontrolled roll and she was thrown from the aircraft. She was 34 years old. The school never opened.

Breaking the Barrier

The pattern in Coleman's and Bullard's stories runs through many Black American achievements in the early and mid-20th century.

James McCune Smith had to go to Scotland to earn a medical degree in 1837. Bessie Coleman had to go to France to earn a pilot's license in 1921. Eugene Bullard had to fly for France in 1917. The systemic exclusion was the same across all three fields; only the destination differed.

C. Alfred Anderson, known as the "Father of Black Aviation," earned the first transport pilot's license held by a Black American in 1932. He trained the Tuskegee Airmen beginning in 1941. In 1941, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Tuskegee program and asked to fly with Anderson. Her flight helped secure President Roosevelt's support for the program.

Impact and Legacy

Coleman's death in 1926 cut short a career that had barely begun. She was 34 and had not yet opened the flight school she planned.

Her legacy outlasted her. Black aviators who trained in subsequent decades cited her as inspiration. At her funeral, Chicago's Black aviation community flew in formation over the proceedings, passing three times over her body in tribute.

The Tuskegee Airmen, who flew more than 15,000 sorties in World War II and destroyed or damaged more than 112 enemy aircraft, trained in a program that owed its existence partly to the groundwork laid by Coleman, C. Alfred Anderson, and others.

A note on a frequently repeated claim about the Tuskegee Airmen: historians have corrected the assertion that they "never lost a bomber they were escorting." A small number of bombers under their escort were in fact lost. Their actual combat record was exceptional and stands on its own merits without embellishment.

Bessie Coleman appeared on a U.S. postage stamp in 1995 and was the subject of a Google Doodle in 2016. Her story is now standard in school curricula about Black aviation history.

From Bessie Coleman to Commercial Aviation

The arc from Bessie Coleman's 1921 license to the integration of commercial aviation took 57 years and a Supreme Court case.

C. Alfred Anderson (1932): First Black American to earn a transport pilot's license. Chief flight instructor for the Tuskegee Army Air Field.

Willa Brown (1938): First commercial pilot's license held by a Black woman in the U.S. Also the first Black woman to serve as an officer in the Civil Air Patrol.

Tuskegee Airmen (1941): First Black military pilots in the U.S. Armed Forces. Trained at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. Flew 15,000+ sorties in WWII.

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (1954): Led the Tuskegee Airmen and became the first Black general in the U.S. Air Force.

Marlon Green (1963): Won a civil rights lawsuit against Continental Airlines after being denied a pilot position despite his qualifications. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor, opening commercial aviation to Black pilots.

David E. Harris (1964): Hired by American Airlines, the first Black commercial airline pilot at a major U.S. carrier. Became the first Black captain at a major airline in 1967.

Jill Brown (1978): Hired by Texas International Airlines, the first Black woman hired as a pilot by a major U.S. airline.

The distance from Coleman's license in France (1921) to Brown's hiring in Dallas (1978) was 57 years. Each step along the way required someone to fight for it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was the first Black pilot?

The answer depends on context. Eugene Bullard was the first Black combat pilot, flying for the French Air Service in World War I in 1917. Bessie Coleman was the first Black woman to earn a civilian pilot's license, in France in 1921. C. Alfred Anderson was the first Black American to earn a transport pilot's license in the United States, in 1932.

Who was the first Black female pilot?

Bessie Coleman. She earned her pilot's license in France in 1921 after American flight schools denied her on the basis of race and gender.

Who was the first Black pilot in the U.S.?

C. Alfred Anderson became the first Black American to earn a transport pilot's license in the United States in 1932. Bessie Coleman's 1921 license was issued by France's FAI.

Who was the first Black combat pilot?

Eugene Bullard, who flew combat missions for the French Air Service during World War I in 1917. The U.S. military refused to accept him as a pilot.

Did Bessie Coleman earn her pilot's license in America?

No. American flight schools refused her on the grounds of race and gender. She traveled to France, studied at the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, and earned her license from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale in 1921.