Strong Black Women In History - my muses

 

Strong women in history. This post should be a slam dunk for Women’s history month. Yet somehow, the subject was a hard one for me. Then my thoughts went to two women I had already written about. 

 

The first was a strong woman named Clara Belle Williams. She raised three strong sons who not only fought America’s enemies in World War II, they each became prominent physicians who helped change the world of medicine by fighting against segregated medical schools and hospitals that employed discriminatory practices with Black patients.

 
Clara Belle Williams has been honored with a spot in the teacher’s hall of fame (yes, she not only raised three sons, she was also their elementary school teacher in a one room schoolhouse in New Mexico). She was the first Black student to receive a BA from the University of New Mexico were she majored in English. Decades later, the University handed her an honorary doctorate because of  her contributions to humanity, and named their English building after her.

 

She actually deserves her own book, to be more than just the parent of the hero of my upcoming book, Unlawful Orders.  She was the real inspiration for the book, learning about Clara Belle during Woman's History Month five years ago led me to er sons. She lived to be 108,  with more than enough accomplisments to fill four lives.

PS, patients at the Chicago clinic her doctor sons founded all called her “Grandma.”

Bessie Coleman was another strong woman, one that is the central figure of my new work-in-progress, tentatively titled Fill The Air With Black Wings. Bessie never had the chance to become a mother, shew died in a plane crash at the age of thirty four.  But she was a beloved aunt to the children of her many siblings. She wanted to make sure they had the kind of family life she never had as a child.

From penniless southern girl to Chicago South Side celebrity. America’s future Queen Bess started out with two strikes against her. She was a woman, and she had both Black and Native American heritage - Choctaw and Cherokee. Bessie was black, with Native American heritage, and female—all of which placed her in the lowest rung of perceived social classes of the day.

But Bessie was the little girl who always knew she would become someone special. As an adult she decided to achieve that goal by doing the near impossible and becoming a pilot.  In the days before Amelia Earhardt, Bessie Coleman became the first Black American and Native American woman to obtain a pilot's license, although she had to travel to France to find a flight school that would agree to teach her.  

This was in the 1920's, and planes were made out of cardboard, cloth, wires and pressed wood.  Pilots flew war surplus planes and made money by barnstorming, entertaining crowds with tricks like barrel rolls or wing walking.  The life was only for the very brave.  Bessie grew into one of the top pilots of the day, in constant demand to appear in air shows across the US. And she had the power to insist her audiences be integrated.

Back in America, she was sought after by wealthy American businessmen and an African prince. She enjoyed being romanced and welcomed their company, but apparently had no intention of settling down as a wife. Perhaps that decision was related to watching her parents seperate when she was nine.  Besides, she had a goal. She planed to use her lecturing to interest youth in aviation, and to make enough money to fund an American flight school that would accept Black students. 

Unfortunately, she died in a plane crash just when she was on the verge of accomplishing that goal. But she did become someone who inspired generations of future flyers, including her nephew who grew up to fly combat missions in World War II.