A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopkins

Among her many achievements, Bessie Coleman was the first American to earn a civilian aviation certificate from the French Federation Aeronautique Internacionale (FAI). This was something she had to do because, being African American and female in the 1920s, nobody in the United States would train her to fly. So she took three years of night school classes, became fluent in French and earned her brevet – a full two years before Amelia Earhart.

Author Carole Hopkins – who is also a 737 Captain with United Airlines – described in our interview the challenges that caused this book to be 12 years in the making, and the ways she is inspired by “serving the legacy that Coleman started.”

Read my interview with Carole Hopkins here.