Latest news with #BessieColeman
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I'm a female pilot - this is the phrase I use to get the passengers' attention
Carole Hopson doesn't take no for an answer. She became a pilot at age 50, flying with United Airlines, then eight years later achieved the rank of captain – and has now published her first book. In an exclusive chat with MailOnline Travel, the 60-year-old explains her inspiration, reveals why she thinks women make the perfect pilots and shares the unique phrase she uses to catch her passengers' attention. It was a fateful journey in a first class cabin that sparked Carole's interest in flying. The former journalist and brand executive was peering into the cockpit from her seat when the pilot saw her looking. 'He said "come on up front". And I sat in the jump seat all night across the North Atlantic watching the stars and the pilot's buttons and switches and I just knew I had to do this,' reveals Carole. It was her boyfriend - now husband - that bought her her first flying lesson, which Carole describes as the 'moment' she knew 'he was a keeper'. That first flight? 'It was unworldly. It was orgasmic,' says Carole. From that moment, she knew she had to quit her job and retrain. And it was at flying school that Carole first heard of Bessie Coleman, the subject of her debut novel A Pair of Wings. Bessie became the first African American woman to earn a flying licence in 1921. Carole says: 'It changed my life. I had been to several universities and yet I had never heard of Bessie Coleman. How was that? It disturbed me profoundly and I said "Jeez, I should do something about this". And I wound up writing the book. 'Bessie's mother was born a slave in Texas. Her mother had 13 children, nine lived and Bessie is 11 when the Wright Brothers make their first flight. Bessie's stunned and she knows she just has to do it. 'But none of the flight schools on either coast, none of them will admit a black woman. 'So she winds up going over to France, which means she has to learn French. At age 26, she starts learning French in night school and when she's proficient she goes over to France and she learns to fly from combatant soldiers. She comes back to the US and barnstorms all across the country.' Carole says she was incredibly inspired by Bessie's tremendous journey and bravery. Much like Bessie, she's also faced barriers to her career. Although she went through flight school quickly, Carole had a child soon after completing her exams, followed by a second. She explains: 'It seemed like I had worked so hard to bring these children into the world, now why would I run out of their world? So I stayed home and I blinked, and 14 years flew by and I was 50. By that time, I said to my husband "either I get to the airlines now, or I'll never get there". 'I've gotten plenty of nos. "Oh you'll never make it to a major airline. Oh you'll never make captain. You're too old for that! You're too black for that! You're too much of a woman.".' Bessie Coleman (above) became the first African American woman to earn a flying licence in 1921. Carole says: 'At age 26, she starts learning French in night school and when she's proficient she goes over to France and she learns to fly from combatant soldiers' Carole is one of around 150 Black women pilots, who make up fewer than one per cent of America's pilots. She wants to change that. The pilot runs the Jet Black Foundation, whose goal is to send 100 Black women to flight school by 2035. 'Most of our talent pool as pilots has come from the military,' explains Carole. 'They were and are magnificent. But we need to look for a talent pool that's never been tapped. 'Women especially are built for this mission. We're resourceful. We understand how to build teams quickly. Prioritising is something I learned as a mom, you have so many things you're juggling. And if I can do it, if I can make that [career] change, anyone can.' The mother of two even uses her experience as a parent when she needs to get her passengers' attention onboard. Carole reveals: 'I come out before every flight and say "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard". And every once in a while the PA system isn't as loud as I need it to be. So I usually say, "Ladies and gentleman, I'm gonna use my mom voice". It always brings a giggle.' Despite becoming a published author, Carole would like to continue flying for as long as she can. 'There is something about the wonder of watching an airplane overhead that gives me the tingles even now. The responsibility, the training, the work, everything in it is all about the people behind you. 'The plane doesn't know if I'm a woman, or a man, if I'm black or white, if I'm young or old. The airplane knows how I command it.'
The Independent
25-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Meet the woman who became a United Airlines pilot at 50 after 20 years as a journalist and brand executive
Becoming a pilot seemed "ridiculous, impossible" after she finished high school. But Carole Hopson is living proof that the seemingly impossible isn't necessarily a barrier. She remained resolutely determined to fullfil her dream — for decades. And after a 20-year career as a journalist and brand executive, she eventually became a United Airlines pilot at the age of 50 and today is one of only around 150 professional Black female pilots in the United States. That's less than one percent of all pilots in the country. The 60-year-old, who lives in New Jersey, reveals that she is highly "internally driven", but also recalls how she was inspired by pioneering pilot Bessie Coleman, who in 1921 became the first African American woman to earn a flying license. She first learned of Bessie's story when she attended a Women in Aviation conference and was given a coffee cup by a friend decorated with Bessie's portrait on one side and a mini biography on the reverse. "Those 50 words have changed my life," says Carole, who couldn't believe there was so little in the public domain about this daughter of a Texas slave who would one day be called Queen Bess. Carole was instantly inspired, telling The Independent: "She did what I wanted to do. But she was learning to fly at a time when American women were getting the right to vote." In response to her moment of inspiration, Carole has penned a historical novel called A Pair of Wings (Cassava Republic) that charts Bessie's pathway to the skies. Carole explains: "Here's a woman who was in the wave of the first African Americans to go from the South to the North. She was part of the great migration. "They moved from slavery to an agricultural area where they worked farms and even became sharecroppers to the Industrial Revolution as World War One happened. "These are the people who made everything that made the war go, from the clothes and the munitions and the armaments and the shoes to everything else. "Anyway, at 26 she wants to fly so badly she learns French at night. By 29 she's conversant. Then she goes over to France on an ocean liner, past crumbling lighthouses in the North Atlantic, and learns how to fly from dog fighters in the First World War." She eventually returned to the US and forged a career in exhibition flying. "This is a remarkable human being," says Carole, "so why don't we know about her? That's an outrage." Carole describes A Pair of Wings as "an attempt to remedy Bessie's absence from our historical memory of women who accomplished extraordinary feats". And to write it, Carole went to almost every site that Bessie journeyed to. She took biplane lessons, so that she could know what flying aeroplanes from another era was really like, and visited cotton farms so that she could learn about growing and harvesting. Carole adds: "Everything about Bess inspired me to not say no, but to say, 'I need to go forward.'" The United pilot's own story begins at the age of just four, when she recalls visiting her grandmother's house in South Jersey and gazing at planes flying overhead as she lay in the garden. She recalls: "I would fantasize about those planes, 'Where were those people coming from? Where were they going? What were they eating? Eating was a big thing. Who and how many people were upfront in that great big window office in the sky? How many engines were there? And what kind of airplanes were they?' "And my grandmother would come out and she would take a piece of paper and teach me how to chart how many airplanes were coming and where they were coming from. "And that started two things, my wanderlust and curiosity. And then later, when I was 11, 12, 13 years old, that became my excuse to get out of chores – I had to go watch the planes." Fast forward to the end of Carole's time at college and she remembers becoming a pilot being a flight of fantasy. She reveals: "I worked throughout college and finished and flying just seemed ridiculous, it seemed impossible. "I became a newspaper reporter, a police reporter… and one day I went out on a date with my husband to be and asked me what I wanted to do. "I was 30 years old and it was the first time I'd ever let it leave my lips. I said, 'I want to fly an airplane.' And he said, 'Wow. I never knew that about you.'" Taking note, he bought her surprise gift certificates to a local flight school. Carole recalls describing the flight experience as "orgasmic" to her husband and at the age of 36 she enrolled in flight school full-time, graduating at the age of 37 in 2001 after the couple had moved from New York to New Jersey. But when September 11 happened, the couple took stock, with Carole's husband suggesting that they have children while waiting for the aviation industry to recover. They had two boys when Carole was 38 and 40, two boys who would put her flying career in a holding pattern. Carole reveals: "I fell completely in love with them, and I blinked. Flying was so much less important than making sure I did a good job with these two little ones. "But I continued to fly as an instructor, which gave me a lot of flexibility. I could run over to the airport, fly a two-hour flight and come back, for instance. I didn't have to have the arduous career of, say, leaving on Monday and coming back on Thursday." She continues: "I closed my eyes — and 14 years passed right by. By the time my kids were in middle school, I had turned 50." The dream of being a full-time commercial pilot was still there, though, and Carole said to her husband, "It's now, or it's never." Having not only been a journalist but also an executive for iconic brands like the National Football League, Foot Locker, and L'Oréal Cosmetics for over two decades, Carole applied to United Airlines for a job and was offered a role as a pilot for United Express, the carrier's regional arm. She then went on to become a United first officer on a Boeing 737 aged 54, earning her captain's stripes in 2022 and flying to destinations including the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. She describes United as "wonderful", adding: "United is the best of the major airlines, in my opinion, and that's why I sought it." Carole reveals that passengers often mistake her for cabin crew, but reasons: "That just lets me know our cabin crew is fantastically dressed and lovely, and that means that that's what they think I am. "And I'm so internally driven that those things are not distractions for me. I have a job to do, and it's to keep people safe, and that's what United has hired me to do. And I am not distracted from that mission one iota." What would Carole say to a Black woman who wants to follow in her footsteps and become a pilot? She replies emphatically: "Good God, do it. Here's the first thing you need to do — take a discovery flight and find out if this is for you, because this field will self-select. "If this is not for you, you will know, and if it is for you, join every one of the organizations, from the National Gay Pilots Association to the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals and Women in Aviation. They are amazing. They give out scholarships, provide mentors, and they will show you the path — breadcrumbs along the way. You don't have to do it from scratch. This is a wonderful time to explore and see that." Aspiring Black female pilots in America can also contact Carole's Jet Black Foundation. She explains: "My goal is to send 100 Black women to flight school by 2035. Why? I believe that we're a talent pool that has never been sourced. "It's a great talent pool. I think we're built for this mission, and I think we should be a talent pool that gets sourced. So, the Jet Black Foundation. We have a pilot shortage. "Now is the time."
Chicago Tribune
27-02-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Vintage Chicago Tribune: The city's groundbreaking Black aviators
Let's look skyward for a little bit of inspiration before Black History Month concludes. Each of the following aviation pioneers cracked open a door that was previously slammed shut. Here are their inspiring stories. Bessie Coleman First Black woman to earn a pilot's license Born in Atlanta, Texas, Coleman moved to Chicago around 1915. She attended beauty school to become a manicurist, but wasn't satisfied with her career path. Coleman wanted to learn how to fly. She soon learned, however, that American flight schools weren't an option due to her skin color and gender. After hearing stories about the opportunities available for women overseas — likely from a brother who served during World War I — she focused on France. Carole Hopson: How did Bessie Coleman, daughter of an enslaved woman, become a queen? Coleman learned French and saved money from her day job in anticipation of a move to Europe. Chicago Defender founder Robert Sengstacke Abbott and banker Jesse Binga helped pay her tuition for flight school in northern France. Just seven months later, Coleman became the first Black woman to earn a pilot's license. She was presented it by the International Aeronautical Federation on June 15, 1921 — almost two years before fellow aviator Amelia Earhart. Coleman returned to the United States aboard the steamer ship Mancuria amid fanfare on Sept. 25, 1921. She proclaimed herself the 'only Negro aviatrix in the world,' the Tribune reported, and intended 'to give exhibition flights and thus inspire the colored citizens with a desire to fly.' Disaster struck as she was flying to a Los Angeles show in 1923. Her engine stalled, and the aircraft crashed. From a hospital bed she telegraphed friends and fans: 'Tell them all that as soon as I can walk I'm going to fly! And my faith in aviation and the use it will serve in fulfilling the destiny of my people isn't shaken at all.' As her plane was beyond repair, she could only keep her bookings when she could borrow a plane. In 1926, she heard that used airplanes were bought and sold at Love Field in Dallas. Coleman bought a well-worn Jenny two-seater. She'd opened a beauty parlor in Orlando, Fla., hoping it would finance her return to flying, biographer Doris Rich wrote in 'Queen Bess.' Coleman hired William Wills, a white mechanic, to deliver her airplane, and on April 30, 1926, the two went aloft to have a look at the Jacksonville, Fla., racetrack where she would perform. Coleman had added a trick to her routine: stepping out on to a wing, jumping off and parachuting to the ground. Accordingly, Wills was in the front seat and Coleman in the rear seat, when a loose wrench got caught in the control mechanism. The Jenny turned over, dropping Coleman out of the aircraft at around 2,000 feet. She plummeted to the ground and died. Wills was killed in the ensuing crash. Funerals were held for Coleman in Jacksonville, Orlando and Chicago, where 2,000 people crowded Pilgrim Baptist Church on May 7, 1926. Coleman was buried in Lincoln Cemetery and for several years pilots dropped floral tributes to her from the sky. Bessie Coleman Drive at O'Hare International Airport is named in her honor and a postage stamp featuring her image was released in 1995. Cornelius R. Coffey and John Charles Robinson Founded the first Black-owned airport and aviation school in the U.S. Though Coffey and Robinson never met Coleman, her story inspired them to move to Chicago to pursue aviation careers. The men were initially denied admission to Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical University in Chicago because they were Black, Tyrone Haymore, executive director of the Robbins Historical Society and Museum, told the Tribune last year. Instead Robinson got a job as a janitor at the school on South Michigan Avenue, and timed his tasks to allow him to eavesdrop on classes. He also established an automotive garage near where the new Rosenwald Courts apartments were being erected. Coffey became the first Black man to hold two licenses — a pilot and an aircraft mechanic. The garage gave the friends the space and tools to build their own small Heath Parasol aircraft from a kit. They couldn't afford the recommended motor, Haymore said, so they used one from Coffey's motorcycle instead. The plane worked, and they convinced a Curtiss-Wright instructor to come out and give it a test flight. Both men were finally allowed to attend Curtiss-Wright and graduated at the top of their class. Their next step would be to open their own school. In Robbins, the men found support. Mayor Samuel Nichols, whose daughter Nichelle Nichols notably was a trailblazing icon aboard another aircraft, Star Trek's USS Enterprise, helped them find land and labor to clear it for a hangar. Robbins is where Coffey, Robinson and a small group of investors founded the first U.S. airport for Black aviators. Operating under the name the Challenger Air Pilots Association, they began operations in 1931 along 139th Street. The Robbins Historical Museum now occupies part of the site. A windstorm destroyed their hangar and two airplanes in 1933, but they were welcomed to Harlem Airport in Oak Lawn. There they trained hundreds of pilots — Black and white — together. Robinson left the program in the mid 1930s after being recruited by Ethiopia to help develop that country's air defenses as an invasion by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini loomed. Nicknamed the 'Brown Condor,' Robinson returned to a hero's welcome in 1936 for his work in the African nation, where he spent the rest of his life. Coffey stayed at the airport at Harlem Avenue and 87th Street, which closed for good after its owners lost its lease in 1956. The site became a shopping center and was annexed by the village of Bridgeview. He later went on to teach at several schools in Chicago, including a long stint at Dunbar High School. Every day, commercial aircraft pass a marker to Coffey's place in aviation history without realizing it. Heading for Chicago's Midway International Airport from the south and east, planes make a final course correction at a point over Lake Calumet that, in 1980, the Federal Aviation Administration named the Cofey Fix (with a slight misspelling because regulations limit such radio checkpoints to five letters). Willa Brown (Willa Brown Chappell) First Black woman to earn private pilot and commercial licenses and first Black woman to run for Congress The Kentucky native had a bachelor's degree in teaching from Indiana State University and a master's degree in business education from Northwestern University, but flight became her life after meeting members of the Challenger Air Pilots Association at a drug store in 1934. Robinson gave Brown lessons before he departed for Ethiopia, then Coffey took over. Brown made her first solo flight at Harlem Airport in June 1936, then became the first Black woman to receive her private pilot's license in July 1938. Just two years later, she was the highest-ranking Black female pilot in the U.S. Brown's list of firsts is numerous. She became the first Black female member of the Civil Air Patrol. She and Coffey, then married, opened the Coffey School of Aeronautics, which became the first Black-owned flight school in the country. Ground-school classes were taught nights at Wendell Phillips High School in Bronzeville and flight exams were given at Harlem Airport. Brown also persuaded the Civil Aeronautics Authority to accept and train her Black students as qualified pilots in the U.S. Army Air Corps (the precursor to the Air Force). She also was responsible for the foundation of the 99th Pursuit Squadron (later known as the Tuskegee Airmen), the first all-Black American fighter squadron. Later she became the first Black woman appointed to the FAA's Women's Advisory Committee on Aviation. The aviatrix, who also recruited young Black children for a junior airman's program during World War II, tried her hand at politics. Despite reportedly flying first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Brown withdraw her support for President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a 2nd Ward precinct captain for the Republican party. 'When I led the fight to get Negroes admitted into the army air forces and pressed my claim before the New Deal war department they said that first I would have to carry out an experiment to see if Negro pilots had the ability to fly,' Brown told the Tribune in 1944. 'I fought for the full integration of Negroes in aviation and when the New Dealers realized I would accept no appeasement program they set up the segregated unit in Alabama and set out to kill my program in Chicago. Now I am out to do everything to defeat the present administration …' Brown was the first Black woman to run for Congress, but was unsuccessful in the 1st District in 1946, 1948 and 1950. She also ran for Chicago alderman in 1947 and ward committeeman in 1948. She was a librarian at Tilden High School in the 1960s and an education coordinator at Westinghouse High School in the early 1970s. Brown died in 1992. 99th Pursuit Squadron (Tuskegee Airmen) First Black unit of the U.S. Army Air Corps The U.S. Army put out a call on March 22, 1941, seeking Black volunteers on a 'first come, first served' basis for the 99th Pursuit Squadron — its first Black unit of the Air Corps. Enlistment requirements were for Black men aged 18-35, unmarried and either a high school graduate or holder of a journeyman's rating in a trade. Training for pilots and ground crew took place starting on March 24, 1941, at Chanute Field in Rantoul before the graduates were transferred to Tuskegee, Ala. in June 1941. That location would provide the elite fighter pilot group with its famed name — the Tuskegee Airmen. Despite the relocation, a November 1942 Tribune story said the unit was ' conceived by Chicagoans, taught in part by Chicagoans, and includes more than 100 Chicagoland youths.' Its first flyers were scheduled to depart for World War II efforts in October 1942, but were unexplainably held back despite the completion of their training. 'The fact that six weeks later the squadron is still at its original base at Tuskegee, Ala., awaiting orders, indicates that it is high time to light a fire under somebody in Washington,' a Tribune editorial stated. 'A source of strength to the nation is being neglected, and there will be no patience with that.' Locals who were part of the group included Andrew 'Doc' Perez, Charles McGee, Henry P. Hervey Jr., Roy Chappell, Wilbur George, Daniel Williamson, Roger Elwood Madison, Robert Martin, Harold Hurd, Hannibal Cox, John W. Rogers Sr. and Oscar Lawton Wilkerson. Janet Harmon Bragg Though she was a registered nurse (with a degree from Spelman College in Atlanta) in Chicago, Bragg had another intention for taking to the skies. 'I had a boyfriend and he was a pilot, and I wanted to keep him,' she told the Tribune in 1993 about Robinson. 'So I learned how to fly.' This hobby soon turned into a passion for Bragg, who received her license at Chicago Executive Airport near Wheeling after acing the exam in 1942 in Alabama — but refused the honor by a white instructor there. Along with Coffey and Robinson she helped open the Black-owned airport in Robbins and formed the Challengers Air Pilots Association. 'You would get up there and in this great big universe,' Bragg said. 'It was just you and God.' Bragg and Robinson broke up, but she stuck with her avocation and in 1933 bought a single-engine, 90-horsepower International — the first of three airplanes she eventually purchased. Two years later, she joined the flight program at Curtiss-Wright. Bragg told the Tribune she applied for the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II, but said she was denied a position due to her skin color. Instead, Bragg and her husband Sumner found financial success after opening nursing homes in Hyde Park. She continued to fly and even was honored in 1956 by Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie during a grand celebration in Addis Ababa, where she was presented a lion cub and made honorary consul for Ethiopia in Chicago. William R. (Bill) Norwood First Black pilot for United Airlines Bill Norwood broke not only barriers in aviation, but also on the ground. He became the first Black quarterback for the Southern Illinois University Salukis football team while earning his bachelor's degree there in 1974 in aeronautical science. After a six-year stint in the Air Force flying B-52s, Norwood applied for a job with Chicago-based United Airlines. Unlike Marlon D. Green, who had to wage a legal battle before he was allowed to become the first Black pilot hired by a commercial airline (Continental), Norwood's progress through 13 weeks of training was breezy. 'My hair could have been purple,' Norwood told reporters in 1965, when he was given his wings by United. 'I was treated well and there were no problems.' Norwood flew more than 25,000 hours for United and retired in 1996 as captain of the DC-10. His name is inscribed on the Boeing 727, which he previously flew, that's part of the 'Take Flight' exhibit at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. He also wrote a book in 2016 titled, 'The Legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen.' Want more vintage Chicago? Thanks for reading! Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
New exhibit in Fayetteville honors Black aviators
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The Arkansas Air and Military Museum has revealed a new exhibit titled 'Black Flight' in observance of Black History Month. The exhibit, which was donated by the Northwest Arkansas chapter of Jack and Jill of America, highlights the contributions of Black aviators, including the Tuskegee Airmen and Bessie Coleman, the first black woman to earn a pilot's license. The Black Flight exhibit showcases the history of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of primarily black military pilots who served during World War II. It also honors Coleman's pioneering achievements in aviation. New Springdale café offers pay-what-you-can coffee, books 'We are educating all of our members about the past.' Ernest C. Merritt of St. John Missionary Baptist Church said at the event. 'If we don't know our past, how can we move toward our future?' Representatives from the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club, including the club president, also attended the unveiling of the exhibit on Feb. 22. To learn more about the Arkansas Air and Military Museum, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
