12 March in Cleveland, OH at the International Women's Air and Space Museum

The International Women's Air and Space Museum is easily accessible in Cleveland, right on the main drag as you come into town.
The Museum is located in the terminal building at Burke Lakefront Airport right on Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. We are located near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as the Great Lakes Science Center, the Steamship William G. Mather, and the U.S.S. Cod Submarine.

From their website:

Family Day: This Saturday, March 12
10:00 am - 4:00 pm

We'll be celebrating the life & legacy of Bessie Coleman this Saturday through a variety of hands-on activities including:

*Bessie's Childhood Home - Explore a mini sharecroppers house & learn about Bessie's childhood.

*Learn French Station - Kids can decipher a code from Bessie written in French.

*Pilot License Photos - Find yourself in a pilot's license photo just like the one Bessie would have received.

*Barnstorming - Make & fly paper airplanes.

*Bessie Remembered - Make tissue paper flowers to remember Bessie.

And More!

We'll also be joined by the following organizations:
Bessie Coleman Foundation
Cleveland Public Library
NASA
Women in History
Karamu House
Read on to learn about some


We'll also be joined by the following organizations:

Bessie Coleman Foundation
Cleveland Public Library
NASA
Women in History
Karamu House

Bessie Coleman trained in Paris to become first female African American pilot

Chicago Sun Tims: Bessie Coleman trained in Paris to become first female African American pilot

In 1920, Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) became the first African-American woman to earn a pilot’s license, after traveling to Europe to attend flight school.

Born in Atlanta, Texas, Coleman moved to Chicago in 1915, and here she discovered her passion for aviation. However, as a black woman she wasn’t allowed to train as an airplane pilot in the United States.

Robert Abbot, publisher for the African-American newspaper the Chicago Defender, urged Coleman to learn French and enroll in France’s Caudron School of Aviation.

Coleman received her international pilot’s license and toured the U.S. as a barnstormer, with the Chicago Defender as her sponsor. Coleman, who gave lectures and flight lessons, became known as “Queen Bess” and “the world’s greatest woman flyer” as her celebrity grew.

Her first Chicago area exhibition was Oct. 15, 1922, at the Checkerboard Field, in what is now Miller Meadow Forest Preserve in Maywood. More than 2,000 people attended.

She died in a plane crash in Florida in 1926 and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, at Kedzie and 123rd in Alsip.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago and Smithsonian Institution Archives