Honoring pioneer aviator Bessie Coleman

HONORING PIONEER AVIATOR BESSIE COLEMAN: Celebrating the organization's 10th anniversary, members of the Bessie Coleman Foundation, Inc. (BCF), a group of Black female pilots, gather at the Museum of the Caudron Brothers (Le Musee des Freres Caudron) in Ville de Rue, France, during a reception that honored Coleman (r), the first woman to earn an international aviation license and the world's first licensed Black aviator, The group also honored the Caudron Brothers who taught her to fly at their flight school (Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron) at Le Crotoy in the Somme, France.

Gaston Caudron's cousins, Ms. Muriel LeBlond (3rd, I) and Ms. Geraldine LeBlond (4th, I), welcome group members (I-r) Margaret Thompson Johnson, southern area director of the Links, Inc.; Lt. Col, Beverly Armstrong, president of the BCF; Dr. Jilda Motley, great-niece of Bessie Coleman; Sandra Campbell; Leisa Brown, great-niece of Bessie Coleman; and Col. Christine Knighton, vice president of the BCF. The Tourism Office of Ville de Rue hosted the reception for the Bessie Coleman Foundation and Museum of the Caudron Brothers representatives. The event marks the first time a group of Black female aviators has visited the institution where Coleman learned to fly. Coleman received her flying license on June 15, 1921, from the Federation Aeronautique International. She dreamed of teaching other Blacks to fly, but died in 1926 at the age of 34 before she could establish a flight school in the United States. She succumbed during a test flight in Jacksonville, FL.