An all-Black, all-female crew flew an American Airlines flight on August 8, 2022, in honor of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to earn a pilot’s license.
From the pilots and flight attendants to the cargo team members and aviation maintenance technicians, the women were in charge of every aspect of the flight from Dallas to Phoenix.
Bessie Coleman had to go to France to get an international pilot’s license in June 1921 because of discrimination in flight schools in the United States.
Today, Black women represent less than 1 per cent of the people working in the commercial airline industry.