《冒险护照》：贝西·科尔曼
Passport to Adventure: Bessie Coleman
2022年8月2日
08.02.2022
《冒险护照》——本系列聚焦历史上突破世俗偏见、勇敢无畏的女性——再度回归！本月主角是杰出非裔美国民航飞行员贝西·科尔曼。
Passport to Adventure – our series highlighting bold women who defied expectations throughout history – is back! This month we’re highlighting Bessie Coleman, a remarkable civil aviator.
贝西·科尔曼（生于1892年）是非洲裔美国籍切罗基族飞行员，她活跃于早期航空展与特技飞行表演，因而获得"勇者贝西"与"空中女王"的绰号。
Bessie Coleman (born 1892) was an African American & Cherokee aviator who starred in early aviation exhibits and stunt air shows, earning her the nicknames Brave Bessie & Queen Bess.
二十岁出头从事美甲师工作时，贝西受一战飞行员故事的启发，通过兼职餐厅经理为飞行学校学费存钱。但当时美国航空学校既不接收非裔学员，也不向女性提供正规飞行培训，令她最初的入学尝试受阻。
While working as a manicurist in her early 20s, Bessie was inspired by stories from WWI pilots and took a second job as a restaurant manager in hopes of saving for flight school. Unfortunately, her initial attempts to enter aviation schools were halted because neither African Americans nor women were allowed formal flight training in the United States.
古墓丽影冒险护照系列配图，艺术家绘制的贝西·科尔曼形象
A Passport to Adventure graphic from Tomb Raider featuring an artist's rendition of Bessie Coleman
插画作者：阿什利·海
Illustration by Ashley Hay.
这未能阻断她的凌云之志。获悉法国有多位女性飞行员后，贝西开始从工作中积攒资金。当时著名的非裔商业人士鼓励她赴海外追梦：罗伯特·艾伯特在《芝加哥卫报》刊载她的故事以引发关注，企业家兼银行家杰西·宾加则资助其旅费。
This didn’t stop her determination to soar high. After learning of the many women aviators in France, Bessie began saving money from her jobs. Prominent Black business members of the time encouraged her to follow her dream abroad; Robert Abbott published Bessie’s story is his paper the Chicago Defender to drum up interest, and entrepreneur/banker Jesse Binga helped to fund her travel.
科尔曼利用业余时间学习法语，并于1920年进入法国勒克罗图瓦的考德龙兄弟航空学校。她刻苦训练，最终在1921年6月15日获得国际航空联合会颁发的国际飞行员执照。
Coleman studied French in her free time and was later accepted at the Caudron Brothers School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France in 1920. She worked hard and realized her dream of earning an international pilot’s license on June 15, 1921 from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
尽管美国国内拒绝向她发放执照，但归国后她作为首位非裔与美洲原住民女性飞行员受到热烈欢迎。1922年劳动节，她在回国后完成了非裔美国女性首次公开飞行。此后，她通过空中特技表演"死亡跳跃"迅速走红，并始终坚持原则，拒绝为种族隔离观众演出。
Although the United States had denied her the right to earn a license domestically, she was celebrated upon returning home as the first African American and Native American woman pilot. She had returned to the United States where she staged the first public flight by an African American woman on Labor Day 1922. From there her popularity soared with aerial “barnstorming” stunt shows, where Bessie stood strong by her beliefs and refused to perform for segregated audiences.
始终志存高远的贝西有了新目标：拥有自己的飞机并开办飞行学校，鼓励更多非裔美国人投身航空事业。她通过演讲、飞行课程和特技表演筹集资金，以"筋斗"等惊险动作震撼观众。1925年，她购入属于自己的OX-5引擎JN-4"珍妮"飞机。
Always setting her sights higher, Bessie’s new dream was to own her own plane and open a flight school to encourage more African Americans to take to the skies. She began fundraising through speeches, flight lessons, and air show participation where she stunned audiences with daring moves like “loop-the-loops”. She purchased her own plane in 1925, Jenny – JN-4 with an OX-5 engine.
即便遭遇同学空难身亡与自身严重受伤等变故，科尔曼始终不为挫折所动，伤愈后继续冒险表演。
Turbulent events couldn’t limit Coleman’s aspirations, including witnessing a classmate perish in a crash and an accident of her own that left her badly injured. Coleman never let anything deter her from pursuing her dreams, so she continued her daring performances once fully healed.
她最终筹足资金计划开办学校，却在实现前遭遇不幸。1926年，34岁的贝西在试飞中因飞机失事罹难。虽然英年早逝，她的精神至今仍被传颂。多年来，芝加哥的非裔飞行员每年都会在她墓地上空举行纪念飞行。贝西·科尔曼持续激励着所有人唤醒冒险精神、坚持到底、永不言弃。
Over time she raised enough money to open her own school, but before it was realized tragedy struck. Bessie passed away in 1926 while a passenger in a test flight at the age of 34. Though she died young, her legacy lives on to this day. For many years, Black pilots from Chicago honored her annually by flying over her grave. Bessie Coleman continues to serve as an inspiration for anyone to awaken their sense of adventure, persevere, and never give up.
在国家女性历史博物馆进一步了解贝西·科尔曼事迹，并通过下方史密森尼学会视频观赏其飞行英姿！
You can read more about Bessie Coleman at the National Women’s History Museum, and see some stunning shots of Bessie in action via the Smithsonian video below!
——原文网址：https://tombraiderblog.square-enix-games.com/en-us/tra/blog/pta-bessie-coleman/
