Bessie Coleman was the first licensed African American aviator. She was born on January 26, 1892, in Texas and attended a one-room segregated school where she strived in mathematics. Coleman's interest in aviation came from reading magazine articles. Racial segregation in the US curbed her possibility of entering an aviation school. However, she was advised to go to Europe to earn her pilot's licence. Coleman gained her licence in France in 1922. When she returned to the US, she began a career as an exhibition pilot and performed aviation stunts across the country. Coleman tragically died in a plane crash on April 30, 1926.
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