'A Pair of Wings' draws inspiration from Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to fly

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

Carole Hopson wanted to be a pilot since childhood, but it wasn't until her mid-30s that she learned about Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to earn her pilot's license in 1921. Coleman's story not only encouraged Hopson to pursue her own career as a commercial pilot, but it also inspired A Pair of Wings, Hopson's first novel. In today's episode, Hopson speaks with NPR's Michel Martin about Coleman's groundbreaking path and about Hopson's own experience as one of few women of color working as a pilot for a major airline. To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's book at the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. It's funny when and where inspiration can strike.
0:08.7	Sometimes it's a beautiful sunset or a bird landing on a branch in just the right way. For novelist Carol
0:16.0	Hobson, inspiration came from a coffee mug, one that she got after a work convention. See,
0:23.2	Hobson is a pilot and she was at this woman in aviation convention when someone gifted her
0:28.5	a mug with Bessie Coleman's picture on it. Now, you might be thinking Bessie Coleman,
0:33.4	who's that? That's not a household name, which is kind of the issue. Coleman was the first
0:38.4	African-American woman to earn a pilot's license. And her story has all of these interesting twists
0:43.9	and details that Hobson thought were worth a novel. So Hobson wrote one. It's called a pair of wings,
0:50.1	and she talked to NPR's Michelle Martin about who Bessie Coleman was and what's so thrilling about flying airplanes.
0:58.3	Have you ever wanted to do something that everybody around you, maybe even you, thought was impossible, even crazy?
1:05.8	More than a hundred years ago, Bessie Coleman, a daughter of former slaves, decided she wanted to fly. And in 1921,
1:12.5	she became the first African-American woman to earn a pilot's license. She barnstormed all over
1:17.3	the country performing death-defying stunts in the air. Decades later, Carol Hobson,
1:22.1	then a corporate executive, learned of Bessie Coleman, and it awakened her own dream.
1:26.3	Hobson became a flight instructor, then a first officer, and then, at the age of 54, a captain on the Boeing 737 for United Airlines.
1:35.3	Hobson wants more people who have dreams of a career in the skies, especially black women like her and Bessie Coleman, to follow those dreams.
1:42.4	So she's written a novel inspired by Coleman's life. It's called
1:45.5	A Pair of Wings. And Carol Hobson is with us now to tell us more about it. Welcome, Captain Hobson. Thank you so much for joining us.
1:52.3	Good morning and thank you for that warm welcome. And wow, you can sum something up. Pretty doggone good?
1:59.5	Well, thanks. Do you remember when you first thought you wanted to become a pilot?
2:04.2	You know, as early as I can remember being able to spot an airplane in the sky, I wanted to fly one.
2:11.8	It just seemed like such a ridiculous notion, though.
	...

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