Bessie Coleman :: essays research papers

Elizabeth Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 to Susan and George Coleman who had a large family in Texas. At the time of Bessies birth, her parents had already been married for seventeen years and already had nine children, Bessie was the tenth, and she would later have twelve brothers and sisters. Even when she was small, Bessie had to deal with issues to the highest degree race. Her father was of African American and Cherokee Indian decent, and her mother was black which do it difficult from the start for her to be accepted. Her parents were sharecroppers and her life was filled with renter farms and day-and-night labor. Then, when Bessie was two, her father decided to move himself and his family to Waxahacie, Texas. He thought that it would offer to a greater extent opportunities for work, if he were to live in a cotton town. While Bessie was young, and her sure-enough(a) brothers and sisters started to work in the fields, Bessie took on some new responsibilities. Sh e would now count on after her sisters, and sometimes even help her mother in the garden. Bessie started crop when she was six years old and walked four miles to school e reallyday. In school, she was very intelligent and excelled at math. Then, in 1901, when Bessie was nine, her life changed dramatically, her father George Coleman left his family. It was verbalize that he was tired of the racial barriers that existed, and so he returned to Oklahoma (Indian ground as it was called then) to search for better opportunities. When he was unable to convince his family to tot up with him, he left Susan and his family. Shortly thereafter, her older brothers also moved out, sledding Susan with four girls under the age of nine. This caused Susan to have to get a job, which she engraft very soon. She became a housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs. Jones, who allowed Susan to still live at home, and they would also break in her food and other handed-down clothing. Since her mother was now at wor k, Bessie took on the responsibility of acting as a mother and a housekeeper. all(prenominal) year at the cotton harvest, Bessies routine was changed because she now had to go out into the field and pick cotton for her family to be able to survive. This go along on until Bessie was twelve, and this was when she was accepted into the Missionary Baptist Church, where she completed all of her eight grades.