Zone1 American Airlines All Black Female Crew Honors Bessie Coleman, The First African American Woman to Earn a Pilot's License

[flacaltenn]

This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart for many reasons. Although I chose to pursue a different career I did solo.

Bessie Coleman, first African American woman to earn a pilot's license, honored by All-Black, female airline crew​

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By Kris Van Cleave​

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August 17, 2022 / 7:17 PM / CBS News​

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Phoenix — An American Airlines flight recently made history when, for the first time in the carrier's 96-year existence, everyone involved from the ramp to the gate to the cockpit and cabin were all Black women.​

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The recent flight from Phoenix to Dallas celebrated the 100th anniversary of Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license.​

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Coleman had to learn to fly in France because it wasn't an option in the U.S. She then became a renowned stunt pilot before losing her life in a plane crash in 1926.​

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Her great niece, Gigi Coleman, was on the celebration flight.​

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"I think she would've been really amazed and in awe. I was in awe, and this is 2022," said Gigi Coleman, who runs Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars, an after-school program aimed at inspiring kids, especially young people of color, to take flight.​

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"My great-aunt received her license two years before Amelia Earhart," she said. "She wasn't in the history books. No one knew about her."​

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There are fewer than 150 Black women airline pilots in the U.S., according to Sisters of the Skies, an organization of Black women airline pilots. American Airlines 737 Captain Beth Powell is one of them.​

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"I've never had an all-Black female flight crew in my entire career," Powell said. "Representation is so important today, because when you see someone in yourself, you know it's possible. 'I can do this, too.'"​

You soloed. I got a pilots license at 19. Partly because of an "inspirational" HS physics teacher that loved to fly and convinced the state of Florida to allow the 1st flight ground school into the HS curriculum. And he took us all up in exchange for working on his Belanka Viking rebuild.

Got a question for ya. Why is it that inspirational people are required to tell kids they can do this? Why is it a secret? Or an impossible dream? If you tell a kid at age 10 that they can be an airline pilot -- do you need ANOTHER "inspirational person" to tell them they COULD be a veterinarian?

I never understood why they run a whole ARMY of "inspirational people" past young kids JUST TO TELL THEM -- they can BE one of something. And why is this SPECIAL for black or female or black female gay kids.

Why else are you in school? How you gonna serve OTHERS when you get OUT of school? What do you DREAM of doing for the rest of your life? Isn't this basic teaching? Or basic parenting? Or basic messaging from the media like THIS STORY about black female pilots?

Maybe an astronaut would be lying about that -- because it's more limited than slots in the NFL. But it seems to me that they ONLY need to be told once -- it depends on BADLY you really want it and how much you'll WORK to get there. No matter WHAT that dream is.

 

[flacaltenn]

Not every obstacle can be overcome, particularly those put in place due to racism, at least not during the era under discussion.

Coleman had to leave the United States in order to get her license, she went to France if I recall correctly, where there apparently was less racism against black people. And since you fly surely you know that the Tuskegee Airmen, who were eminently qualified as pilots, since they gained most of their flight experience in battle, were unable to overcome the artificial barriers erected to keep them from flying for the commercial airliners for almost 20 years after the end of World War II.

And while we're talking about the qualifications of the Red Tails, who accomplished that they did before the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the enactment of affirmative action, Black people who excel in their craft and their field are usually not "just as qualified" as their peers but "more qualified", out of necessity, otherwise they would not be allowed to compete and "displace" other White candidates.

I remember seeing an article written about Jackie Robinson being the first Black major league baseball player and the writer mentioned that he didn't like the way they kept calling him "the first", as if there were no other highly qualified and gifted ball players before him. There were, it's just that Jackie Robinson was the first Black player who was ALLOWED to play in the major leagues.

Another way to look at these impediments is that by preventing Black people from pursuing their dreams and careers in their DESIRED/CHOSEN field in actuality deprives them of DECADES of income that could be used to improve their lives, the lives of their families and in some case, the lives of others in their communities.

This is one example of the cost to Black people of White racism. We understand that White racism isn't a problem for White people because it doesn't impact them. It always has been and I expect always will be a challenge for Black people that we will just have to continue to navigate around and continue working to affect change, for everyone.

So -- it's historical impediments that's the important point of celebrations like this "all black AA crew". SO - why are there STILL only 124 commercial black female pilots? The idea must not APPEAL to them that's why. Just like back when women didnt want to drive heavy equipment for a living. Because this REALLY is no different except for the speed and the neat uniform.

When it comes to COAXING kids into careers, the education folks just run a parade of "speakers" in front of them and the results suck. Same for WHITE or ASIAN women when it comes to driving a heavy commercial airplane around the sky. It's NOT racial bias that they have to overcome any more TODAY.

I think the kids should be encouraged to do the career search themselves -- all the way back into grade school and be tracked by the teachers year to year. And it should be a MAJOR theme of the WHOLE education process in K-12. With TODAYS resources -- ANY kid who really wanted to could learn the whole process pretty much on-line for ground school and have access to some pretty nifty cheap simulators. So if a young black girl in 5th grade says -- I wanna fly airplanes and that desire is there NEXT year and the year after -- EDUCATION should include guidance on resources and reading and study material and the whole enchilada. Tailor her curriculum to THAT CHOICE in some small but IMPORTANT way, I'm sure the army of district school supervisors can find SOMEONE to take her up a couple times.