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    Primary Sources in Elementary Education
    1032 Members Created Jul 16, 2012
    #3 - 5, #elementary, #primary,
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    Bessie Coleman

    The story of Bessie Coleman becoming the first licensed African American aviator is sure to inspire your students to never give up! I love how this African American woman in the 1900's never gave into the words "you can't do!" 

    The Book called Nobody Owns the Sky by  Reeve Lindbergh tells how this woman proves no one owns the sky or her and her dreams! 

    I was inspired by her story and I know your students would be too. Social Studies/History 3 - 5 6 - 8

    Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.), 01 May 1926. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1926-05-01/ed-1/seq-12/>

    Plane Crash killing Colored Aviatrix Laid to Wewnch Jammed in Controls

     
    The Key West citizen. [volume], May 01, 1926, Image 1
    About The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current

    https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016244/1926-05-01/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1926&index=1&rows=20&words=Bessie+Coleman&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1926&proxtext=Bessie+Coleman&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

    Chicago: Alexander, Kerri Lee. "Bessie Coleman." National Women's History Museum. 2018. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/bessie-coleman.

    https://www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/coleman-bessie/ A good 6:39 video on this wonderful woman

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    I took a look at the Topics in Chronicling America page on Women and Aviation and was disappointed not to find any articles on Bessie Coleman. That's a discussion in itself, but for context about attitudes toward women aviators in the early days, it's still well worth a look. 

    Don't you love these article titles? -

    Will Women Drive Man Out of the Sky?

    Flying No Job for Women!

    I also appreciated the suggestions for search terms: women aviators, aviatrices, flying machines, airships, and aeroplanes. A librarian could turn these examples into an excellent lesson on using historic language for finding relevant primary sources.

      women aviators    aviation    search strategies  

    I too was surprised by not finding any articles on her, but I thought the newspaper articles did show the attitude of the time. Funny, but I used the suggested search terms to find out more about the different kinds of flying machines of the time . All is never wasted when I search the Library of Congress wealth of sources!

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