Crowd salutes pioneering black women aviators

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Copy photo of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American female aviator....MANDATORY CREDIT--photo courtesy of the DuSable Museum of African American History.....production note--border area of photo is white.

Updated: June 2, 2011 12:29AM

They were three fearless mavens of the sky who trailblazed their way to historic heights.

And on Saturday, the trio of pioneering aviators were remembered at Lincoln Cemetery in Alsip for the 80th annual tribute to the world’s original black woman pilot.

Bessie Coleman, who made history by earning her international aviator’s license in June 1921, was honored along with Willa Brown and Janet Harmon Bragg, two fellow groundbreaking black female flyers.

The yearly event began in 1931 as a tribute to Coleman, who is buried at the cemetery, 12300 Kedzie Ave. Coleman died in a tragic airplane accident while practicing for an air show in 1926.

This year’s event was highlighted with the unveiling of a monument to Bragg, who helped to establish the first black-owned airport in Robbins in the 1930s. Bragg, the only one of the three whose gravesite is not on the Lincoln burial grounds, was the first black woman to study at Wright Aeronautical University and was instrumental in forming an aeronautics school that helped train many of the Tuskegee Airmen.

“They opened the skies not just for black women, but for black people,” said Sandra Campbell, who punctuated the ceremony with a stirring personification of Coleman. “They showed that you don’t have to let anything stop you.”

Saturday’s festivities featured an aerial salute by the Chicago Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen, who performed a finger-four flyover above the gravesites of Coleman and Brown.

The event also highlighted the struggle and determination of the three women who persevered in a Jim Crow culture of sexism and discrimination to earn their wings.

“I encourage everyone, if you have a dream, follow that dream. Get your children to follow their dreams,” said Arthur Freeman II, a nephew of Coleman’s who traveled from South Carolina to see his first tribute.