>> welcome to heritage focus, the adventurers, a series of stories about african-american men and women who have dared to be different, whose achievements are inspiring and in many cases little known. we want you to know about them, appreciate their dedication, and learn from their lives. featured in this half hour, bessie coleman, the first african-american female pilot and matthew henson, arctic

>> she was known as queen bess. in her short life and career, bessie coleman, the first african-american female pilot truly earned her title. bessie was born in 1892 in atlanta, texas, the tenth of 13 children. a few years later, the family moved to pick cotton, and bessie coleman grew up in a time when it wasn't easy for any woman, and particularly an african-american female to succeed at very many things outside the norm, and the norm

would be cooking and cleaning and taking care of children, and sometimes if they got lucky, becoming a school teacher or a nurse, if they got the education. in bessie's case, she had very meager beginnings. she loved school. she walked to a one-room schoolhouse every day, to and from about a mile each way, and she excelled, especially in mathematics and science, which is the cornerstone of aviation. >> my teacher would say this is one of the most important lessons you are ever going to learn in life. don't pay no attention tour circumstances, she said, because learning is an inside out job. it has everything to do with what's in here and hardly anything at all has to do with your circumstances. >> bessie finished school and continued her studies on her own with the help of a traveling library r that led into her acceptance into college and she attended the school now known as langston university in oklahoma. bessie's stick to it at tiewtd was legendary among family

members. >> my mom said she was a very determined person, that she had a dream and a goal, and the skies was the limit and she wasn't going to take no for an answer, and she always wanted to fly. >> follow your dreams and don't take no for an answer, because every no brings you closer to a yes. >> bessie really needed that passion and determination. she encountered challenges at every turn. her father left the family when she was nine, so she helped raise and support her siblings. later she had to leave college when her money ran out, and there were more to come. through it all, she never gave up, and in 1915, she headed to chicago where her brothers lived and she got a job as a moon curist in a barber shop on the south side, and it was there that she would hear men talking about this thing called flying, only they were very upset,

because colored boys would try to get into the military to become fliers and they were told during world war one that they were refused the opportunity. they didn't have the brains to fly. >> bessie knew that that's what she wanted to do but she couldn't tell anybody, because people would frown on a woman thinking she could do such a thing when the colored boys serving in the war couldn't even fly. bessie found out that there were flying schools that were going to be starting up after world war i, and she applied and was refused the opportunity yet again. another door closed in in her face. >> they slammed that door so fast in my face it made my head spin, and then i could hear them laughing at my expense on the other side of the door. i was so hurt. all i could do was cry. >> she was about to give up on her dream when she met a man by the name of robert abbott, who was the c.e.o. and publisher of what was the leading colored newspaper in the country, the chicago weekly defender and he told her that she could get a

pilot's license, only she was way ahead of her time in the united states. she would need to go to france, because there she would have the freedoms and the equality that were allowed for all people in france. she worked during the day as a manicurist in the barber shop, and at night she studied french. >> the businessmen who supported bessie's plan were hoping she could open the doors of aviation for the race, which wassite in line with her own -- which was right in line with her own plans to start a flight school for blacks. her family was concerned, to put it mildly. >> her mother thought she was crazy, that's what my grandmother told me. bessie is insane. it's so dangerous. plus, she's a female. who would want to take her serious? >> bessie hoped that someone on the other side of the atlantic would, so on november 20, 1920, she set sail from new york. abbott had already arranged for her lodging and enrollment. she didn't know there was yet another roadblock she would have

to face down. >> well, the flying school she was enrolled at was about five miles away. she walked to that flying school with her registration in hand, so excited the day after she arrived in paris to get that license, only they turned her down. they had lost one student flier in an airplane accident and refused to teach another woman to fly. she found out there was another flying school nine miles away, called the flying school of the caldron brothers. without them knowing she was coming, without them even hearing of bessie coleman she made her way to that flying school with all the courage she could muster and told them her story and they welcomed her with open arms and told her they would be proud to train the first colored woman to fly. >> on june 15, 1921, i received this certificate, making me the first colored person ever to become a licensed flier! >> there was no stopping bessie after that.

she needed to make a living and quickly realized when she returned home if she wanted to do that by flying, she would have to get creative. >> she saved money in her chili parlor she started on the south side, went back to europe, enrolled in aerobatics school and became a certified stunt pilot. that's how she made her money. >> when she came back here, they didn't want her to fly. what she did was she wanted to open up a school so that other blacks, african-americans could learn how to fly, and what she did, she had different exhibits all over. >> what is an achievement if it cannot be shared? i set out to turn that certificate into a pathway for others to follow their dreams. >> when bessie would do air shows, borrowing other people's airplanes and doing demonstrations, she wouldn't do a show if they wouldn't allow the coloreds. they couldn't sit in the crow's nest out in the field. they had to allow them to to

come through the same gate or she wouldn't do the show. >> bessie's wanting to help others was firmly rooted in her faith and inspired by her mother. >> knowing the kind of family life she had with a god-fearing mother who believed strongly in her faith and then having her children believe in and have a strong faith in god. they went to church on sundays. they went to bible study. this was a woman who couldn't read who inspired her children to be all they could be, you know, it is a cliche now but it's true. that's what she d >> bessie never had children of her own, but she moved her younger sister to chicago once she got to chicago and helped raise her niece. she cefts her mother's lessons alive through them and anyone else who would listen. >> let no one turn you around from your dreams, and you can do whatever you want to do, you know, in life, as long as you try harder. don't let anybody stand in your way to do whatever you want.

>> sometimes i feel like i'm listening to her when i perform that she's whispering in my ear, keep doing it, all of us are browned for greatness. sometimes we succumb to whatever this society tells us about ourselves, whatever other people say about us, but the truth is, the truth is inside us that we're all designed to be great. >> bessie's career ended in a tragic plane accident in 1926, but her triumphs over the barriers facing women and people of color stand tall today. in 1990, a road near chicago's o'hare airport was named in her honor. the u.s. postal department issued the bessie coleman stamp in 2005 and she was the first woman of color inducted into the aviators hall of fame, flying high above anything trying to

>> in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an explorer's life wasn't what anyone would describe as easy. for matthew henson, the only african member of the first team of explorers to reach the north pole, life was a challenge from day one. >> he had a very sad childhood, really. he was born probably in 1866 in charles county, maryland, and his mother died when he he was born into a family of

share sharecroppers whose ancestors had been slaves, although they were actually freed then. >> henson's father remarryed are but he wasn't treated well bwhes later in an accident, he was on his own at 8 years old. he went to washington, d.c. to live with an uncle, go to school and work, and find a better way to live. >> he heard a sea captain talk about the lure of the sea. shortly thereafter at about 12, he walked, heimore, where he encountered quite accidentally the very helpful captain childs who took him on as a cabin boy. >> henson stayed on with childs for almost ten years, becoming a sailor in his late teens. the cap captain was a mentor to the young henson, teaching him mathematics, reading and other things he had only just begun to learn about in school and life.

>> captain childs protected him and prepared would encounter muf that in his life, and in fact, he stayed in the united states at the time. >> at 21, henson returned to washington, d.c. from his travels around the world but he didn't stay long. he soon met robert perry, ship officer and took off again. perry was impressed and offered him a spot on his north pole expedition where he proved indispensable. >> his skills were primarily of what we would say now as an engineer, a practical person who could make things, solve problems, figure things out. >> henson could just about do it all. the carpentry to build their hudson sled, handle the logistics of setting up and moving camp. photography to document the expedition, navigation, soldering equipment in the cold and most importantly, learning

from the locals. he could speak the inewe it language. he learned to speak it early buse the inuits saw him andike him and he comments that they liked his dark skin and adopted him. he learned other skills of theirs, and he could run the dogs better than anybody else on the regular expedition. perry said at one point, i could not do without him. that's because he was a member of a team, not because he was the leaders grandoise, but because his skills were essential. he was the only one who knew how to do some of those things. >> henson was a member of all the expeditions to reach the north pole. as if his life's journey hadn't already been challenging enough, what they faced in the far north was even more brutal. >> i never really understood what really cold was until my

first trip up there, and so i can imagine anybody who had from a mortem per rat climate -- a more temperate climate and got to the arctic, it is really cold beyond what you can imagine. you can't sweat. you can't overexert yourself because it is very dangerous. the sweat will freeze and then you will get hypothermic, and you could be in a really dangerous situation, so there is this constant adding and subtracting of clothing layers at just the right body temperatures to be able to function, but sometimes it is just so cold that your mind seems to freeze. >> one of them surveyed our traveled across greenland, which we took extraordinary effort and the terrible because greenland is covered completely in ice and the ice is very, very high, so

there are problems with elevation, problems with air, problems with the cold. >> you are only arom disaster ae time. should you fall into the water and get wet, it's a very dangerous situation. a lot of people don't realize that if your clothing gets wet and you're far north, it's not going to dry. it's just not going to dry. it will freeze and then you can knock the ice off and hopefully your body heat will kind of make you warm again. >> and that happened to henson on their last push to the pole. he fell into the water as they were crossing the ice and his companion pulled him out just in time n april of 1909, henson reached the north pole but even then there were more challenges to face. when they returned to announce their accomplishment, they found out a rival made it to the north pole first, nearly a year

>> in april of 1909, perry and henson finally reached the north pole. even then, there were more challenges to face. when they returned to announce their accomplishment, they found out a rival made it to the north pole first, nearly a year earlier, so their return was

somewhat marred. it wasn't the triumphant return they expected. they came back york, and the rival claims were made, and most people rallied to perry and hanson, and perry came back to many honors, and henson came back to relative obscurity. he did receive considerable recognition from the african-american community. he was awarded a honorary degrem morgan state university and he visited several black institutions on lecture tours in the south. >> but recognition from his peers and the exploring world would be a long time coming. in the meantime, he had to make a living. henson wrote a book about the expedition that didn't take off and after an unsuccessful lecture tour he wasn't in good health and barely eking out a living until a friend got him a

job at the u.s. customs office in new york. >> he worked at the customs office until he came back at about age 43 and worked there until he was about 70. when he retired, thanks to the intervention of his friends who were able to find a modest retirement source for him, and at that point, he lived in the dunbar apartments in harlem in relative comfort. >> it wasn't until 25 years after henson's return that his colleagues began to honor his contributions. the explorer's club was the first in 1937. later he met president's truman and eisenhower and honored by congress and other organizations. well after his death at 88 in 1955, he received the national geographic medal and interred with honors at arlington cemetery and had a u.s. naval ship and government building named of after him. one has to wonder what kept him going in breaking through the

obstacles. he wasn't much of a talker so not much is known about his thoughts but his actions and what he did say speak volumes about his character. >> he was and the inuit gave him this name. he was kind and he was quiet. we have every reason to think he had a sense of kindness that is part of the christian story, and a sense of reverence for life. we're not sure exactly how that developed. he does make a firm point that he had a bible with him in the arctic. we don't know whether it was his favorite book particularly, but we know it was important to him, and we know that his good mentor and in his childhood, the dear captain childs, used the bible to help teach him to read, so he was familiar, i think, with cons the real lessons we learn from matthew henson simply come from

the qualities we each see when we look at how he lived his life. >> he basically invented himself where he took advantage of every opportunity to create a life that was u other people in his family. he dared. he was invited to go to nicaragua and he said yes, and when he was invited to go to the arctic, he said yes. >> another thing toh is to get passionate about something, to really want to do it, to want to do it so much that you won't let anybody stop you. to want to do it so much that yolearn what you have to learn o do, to want to do it so much and to want to do it so well that you're going to do whatever it takes to make it happen. >> matthew henson, arctic explorer.

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