Books: A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson

 

 

 A Pair of Wings by Carole Hopson is our Chapter Night Book Club read for March. I loved this book! Historical fiction is my favorite genre, so this definitely fit the bill, but normally I read WWII historical fiction; this is American historical fiction. A Pair of Wings tells the story of Bessie Coleman, the real life first black female aviatrix in America.

Born to a former slave turned sharecropper in Texas in 1892, Bessie was learning how to fly at the same time that Amelia Earhart was learning to fly, and it's about time her story is being told. In her early 20s, Bessie made her way to Chicago and her brothers, and, having always had the dream of becoming a pilot, she worked in Chicago saving every penny she had. Her luck and hard work turned for the better with the help of two powerful, wealthy black men who wanted to help her soar. However, for Bessie, being a black woman, there was no school in America that would teach her, so with the help of these two men, she made her way to France to learn to fly, learning to speak French before she left America.

A Pair of Wings takes you through her training in France with the Caudron brothers in LeCrotoy, France, where she eventually earned her wings. When she came back to the United States, she started a flying career doing barnstorming aerobatic shows while at the same time living under Jim Crow laws limiting the rights of black Americans. Her story is truly inspirational.

What made this story even more special was its author, Carole Hopson. I recently went to the Savannah Book Festival with a group of sorority sisters, and Carole was one of the featured speakers. What a firecracker! An amazing woman in her own right, Carole is currently one of only a dozen black female commercial airline captains in the United States; she's currently flying 737s based out of Newark, New Jersey, one of the busiest airports in the country. During her book talk at the festival, she shared that she learned about Bessie Coleman while visiting a conference for women pilots. Though Bessie was not on the list of subjects covered at the conference, a fellow female pilot gave her the gift of a coffee mug with a photo of Bessie wrapped around it, encouraging her to learn about Bessie, thus leading her to write the book. Hearing Carole talk about her own journey of becoming a pilot combined with her journey to tell Bessie's story definitely made this a 5-star book for me! It also hit home with me that Bessie's life ended in Jacksonville, Florida, where I've lived for 47 of my 59 years and still live today.