MLA Biography Project: Bessie ColemanBessie Elizabeth Coleman was born on January 28, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas. Her mother wanted to return to Texas at that time, Bessie was only 2 years old. Waxahachie, a town of less than 4,000 people. She was the tenth of thirteen children in her household with both parents Susan and George Coleman. Susan and George were married for 17 years, with ups and downs. George was mixed with African American and part Cherokee. But Susan was a heterosexual African American from her roots. George Coleman left his family in 1901 to return to Indian Territory due to racial barriers that existed in Waxahachie and throughout Texas. Susan Coleman refused to take the children back to Oklahoma. Bessie stayed with four other siblings to help with the family's financial problems by picking cotton or helping with the laundry and ironing that her mother did for work. But his mother was determined to give her children an education. When Bessie graduated from high school, she enrolled at Colored Agricultural and Normal University, which is now Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma. But due to money problems, she had to drop out after her first semester because all her savings were gone. But she could have stayed and worked, but her mother needed help at home, so Bessie dropped out of school just to help her mother at home. Shortly after, she moved to Chicago in 1915, where her brother was then living, and attended beauty school. She spent her early years during World War I working as a manicurist at the White Sox Barber Shop. She operated a small but profitable chili parlor. Unfortunately, she got married to Claude Glenn, but she never really said it publicly because she knew he wasn't really for her so...... middle of paper ... .. . American-Statesman, September 6, 1993. Roger Bilstein and Jay Miller, Aviation in Texas (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1985). Dallas Morning News, September 8, 1993. Houston Post-Dispatch, May 1, 1926. Anita King, “Brave Bessie: First Black Pilot,” parts 1 and 2, Essence, May-June 1976. Doris L. Rich, Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993). Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/peopleevents/pandeAMEX02.html1996-2009 WGBH Educational FoundationThis site is produced for PBS by WGBHhttp:// www.bessiecoleman.com/By the Atlanta Historic of Museum http://www.biography.com/people/bessie-coleman-369281996–2013 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/aviationpilots/a/bessie_coleman.htmBy Jone Johnson Lewis