In the early 1920s, the most daring stunt pilot in the world stood on a movie set, looked at the tattered rags and walking stick the script demanded she wear, and walked away from the payday that would have funded her life's dream. That tension defines Bessie Coleman: a flamboyant, death-defying daredevil in the air, and an immovably principled woman on the ground. Born in 1892 to Texas sharecroppers, the tenth of thirteen children, she walked four miles to a one-room schoolhouse, lost her education to every cotton harvest, and made it exactly one term into college before the money ran out.

Then came the master class in strategic problem solving. Working as a Chicago manicurist and chili parlor manager, she built a literal flight fund, won the backing of Chicago Defender publisher Robert Abbott, enrolled in Berlitz classes to learn French,  ...