Rina Risper

LANSING, MI — The Michigan Senate passed legislation recently that will encourage public schools at the middle and high school levels to focus on the advanced kingdoms of Pre-colonial Africa during world history instruction, instead of the most primitive Africans who did not represent the continent.

Above: Charles Six, President, Ending Stereotypes for America; Representative  Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek) and former Representative Brenda Clack (D-Flint). Courtesy photo

(BPRW) In a year of such firsts as Jamaican-decent pilot Barrington Irving’s trek around the world in a single-engine airplane, and the Tuskegee airmen earning a Congressional Gold Medal; perhaps it is fitting to go a little further back into aviation history to discuss the premier African American woman of flight. Bessie Coleman was born in a small town in northeastern Texas in 1892, the 10th of 13 children and would ultimately become the world’s first licensed black pilot.