Bessie Coleman never set out to be a trailblazer, but history made her one anyway. Born in 1892 in Texas to an African American mother and a Native American father, Coleman grew up during the Jim Crow era, in a society structured to exclude her on the basis of both race and gender. Discrimination and segregation were not abstract concepts; they shaped the reality of her everyday life from an early age. In 1915, Coleman moved from Texas to Chicago, joining the Great Migration

In an industry where gatekeeping was rife, Norma Merrick Sklarek didn't just break glass ceilings, she shattered them. As the first...