Coleman featured on product nationally

Target, Walmart and other national retailers are selling local hero Bessie Coleman Mattel Barbie Doll as part of their black history displays. As many in our community know, February is Black History Month. As a commemoration, local contributor Raydeen Edwards will be featuring individuals who continue to make an impact on the black community as well as those like Coleman who have their roots in Cass County. This set of stories in 2024 will focus on entrepreneurs and educators.

Coleman’s legacy made news again in January of 2023 with the announcement that her likeness would be featured as a Barbie doll. Coleman also made news in 2023 for having her likeness on a U.S. Quarter and a U.S. Stamp in 1995.

“Known for her daring adventures as a barnstorming stunt flyer, Bessie Coleman broke new ground in the field of aviation,” Mattel said in a release at the time. “She also inspired generations of Black, Native American, and female pilots.” Queen Bessie as commonly known, was born in Atlanta, Texas in January 1892, and raised in Waxahachie from age two– made history when she earned an international pilot’s license from France’s Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in the summer of 1921. This made her the first African-American (whether male or female) to earn an international pilot’s license.

Coleman was born to a large family of Texas sharecroppers and worked the cotton fields as a young girl and studied at a small, segregated school.

Some of her other accomplishments and items of note included:

- The first African-American female and the first Native American to hold a pilot license.

- “Coleman staged the first public flight by an African American woman in America on Labor Day, September 3, 1922.” - Britannica - Refused to perform before segregated audiences.

- Spoke at “schools and churches, she encouraged blacks’ interest in aviation.”

- Raised money to found a school to train black aviators, but before she could open the school died in an aerial stunt accident.

-“Attended one term of college at Langston University. Coleman developed an early interest in flying, but African Americans, Native Americans, and women had no flight training opportunities in the United States, so she saved and obtained sponsorships in Chicago to go to France for flight school.”

- Became a high-profile pilot in notoriously dangerous air shows in the United States. She was popularly known as “Queen Bess” and “Brave Bessie”.

The Coleman Barbie Doll is part of Mattel’s Inspiring Women Series that “pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time; courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before. Despite facing racial and gender discrimination, Bessie Coleman became the first Black and Native American female aviator and the first Black person to earn an international pilot’s license. Sculpted to her likeness and wearing a traditional olive- green aviator suit, including a “BC”-initialed cap, this collectible Barbie doll honors a high-flying icon. Includes doll stand and Certificate of Authenticity. Barbie doll cannot stand alone. Colors and decorations may vary.”

According to the doll-making company, The Inspiring Women series is meant to pay tribute to courageous women like Coleman who “paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.”

“Barbie Signature members got the opportunity to add the next Inspiring Women Doll to their collections without knowing who the doll actually was,” Voivod wrote. “But this series of dolls, representing courageous women of their time, is so popular that collectors want to snap them up before they’re available to the general public.”

“We promised that this doll would be amazing, just like the real-life person who inspired her, and now we can finally reveal her: Bessie Coleman, the first Black and Native American female aviator and the first Black person to earn an international pilot’s license,” they added.

Doll designer Carlyle Nuera told Mattel researching Bessie Coleman was one of his favorite parts of getting a feel for the doll’s design. He said that though there was a wealth of information available about Coleman online, finding photos of Coleman to help with the integral design process was difficult, but not impossible.

“I went looking for old images of Bessie Coleman. There weren’t that many online and all of them were in black and white,” Nuera said. “So I also looked to other depictions of her: book illustrations, tribute art, and even how kids dress up like her for school projects. That gave me an idea of how society characterizes her, and I could design the doll to match that.”

The Coleman Barbie release date was January 9, for The Inspiring Women series. According to Mattel, the series “pays tribute to courageous women who paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.”

Coleman’s Barbie doll joined the likes of many other Barbie Inspiring Women line dolls, such as Rosa Parks, Dr. Jane Goodall, Billie Jean King, Madam C.J. Walker, Ida B. Wells, Maya Angelou, Ella Fitzgerald, Florence Nightingale, Sally Ride, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller and Susan B. Anthony.

At Target in Shreveport, the black history collection featured Coleman as well as Ida Wells, and Madam CJ Walker. There have been reports that Target in Texarkana also has the dolls too.

This month for Black History Raydeen Edwards will be featuring articles on James Richard (night club owner), McNoble Harper (ag teacher), Pauline Fisher (English teacher), and Professor Davis (Puritt High School)