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The airline hosted the Bessie Coleman Aviation All-Stars tour this week to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Coleman flying the first public flight by an African-American woman in 1922.
Coleman’s grandniece, Gigi Coleman, was hosted on the flight operated by the all-black female crew of pilots, flight attendants, customer service coordinators, cargo team members and aviation maintenance technician, the airline said.
Very few American women of any race had a pilot’s license in 1918, but those who did were often white and wealthy. Undeterred, Coleman learned French and moved to Paris, where he was accepted into the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation. In 1921, Coleman became the first female pilot of African American and Native American descent.
Black women are “notably underrepresented in the airline industry, especially as pilots, accounting for less than 1% in the commercial airline industry,” American Airlines said.
“Today I am beyond excited to be part of the crew where we inspire young girls, young girls of color, to see the different roles these women play in every aspect to make this flight possible,” Captain Beth Powell , the flight’s pilot, said in the video.
American Airlines said it is committed to cockpit diversification, including “raising awareness of and increasing the accessibility of the pilot career across communities” through its cadet academy.
The day after the historic flight, representatives of the Bessie Coleman Foundation and American Airlines pilots and cadets met students from the Academies at South Mountain in Phoenix, where the flight landed, to introduce young people to careers in the airline industry.
“I knew she was the first African-American woman to get her pilot’s license, she was the first to do it, so she inspired the next generation to follow in her footsteps and know that they can be whatever they want to be.” said Mohamed Mohamed, an aspiring pilot studying aerospace at the academy, in the video.
Karla Pequenino of CNN contributed to this report.
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