Bessie Coleman,
the first
African-American pilot.
She's like, "I'm a bad bitch.
I'm a f*cking pilot."
God help me. Okay.
I am lit.
Little Rock Nine is
like, "Oh, my gosh.
There is an ass-load of
angry white people."
And they are like, "Uh,
we don't like you.
You are poopy."
None of these words are
words that have ever
come out of my mouth.
f*ck.
- Have you ever flown a plane?
- No.
- You want to try?
- Yes.
All right. Let's try it.
Let's do it for Bessie.
All engines are revvin'.
- And...
- Are you ready to go?
And we're ready to go!
Yeah!
- Oh.
- Fly it.
Ah.
Here we go.
Trying. It's trying.
Oh, there it goes!
She's going! Ah!
Holy sh*t.
Excellent flight.
Hello, my name is Lyric
Lewis, and today,
we will be discussing
the queen...
queen of queens, literally
flyer than most,
Bessie Coleman.
- Cheers.
- Cheers to Bessie.
Okay, so the story, we
start in 1915, yes?
In Chicago, right?
And Bessie Coleman,
she's 23 years old.
She's a young thing.
She's a manicurist in Chicago,
and she is the best,
hands-down the best, so like,
she's doing the nails
of the upper crust
elite black people in Chicago.
And all the black people
are like, "Hey, girl, hey.
Do my nails, girl,"
and she's like,
"Okay, girl, I got you,"
and they're like, "Girl."
While she's there, she's reading
the "Chicago Defender,"
which is a black-owned
newspaper.
She's reading about World
w*r I and what's happening.
So she's like, "Yo. One day,
I hope I get to be, like,
a m*therf*cking pilot."
People at the nail shop,
the people were like,
"Girl, you wiling
out," and she's like,
"No, I'm gonna be a f*cking pilot.
Relax."
And she says to herself,
like, she's like,
"Self, I'm not dumb.
"I know that I have to, like,
train and go to school
to become a pilot."
So she's applying to
aviation schools,
and she's being
rejected left and right
because of nothing
beside the fact
that she's a black woman,
she's black and Cherokee.
If this was a drink of haterade,
their glass was full
and they were like...
"Hatin'."
That was them.
And she's like, "Yo, f*ck
each and every one of you,"
and she's like, "Fine,
like, whatever, like,
you said no, but I'm gonna
keep saving my money."
And so then she meets Robert S.
Abbott,
and he is the owner, it
turns out to be, of the...
dun-dun-duh! The
"Chicago Defender."
And he's like, "Hey, girl."
And she's like, "I
love your paper.
"Your paper inspired
me to even want
"to be a f*cking pilot, to
where I really want to fly.
"However, I'm having trouble
"getting into aviation
school in America.
"America is not having me,
because I'm black
and I'm a woman."
Excuse me.
And so Robert's like,
"Yo, you're wiling out
"if you think you're gonna be
a pilot in America right now,
because it's not gonna
happen," and he was like,
"My advice to you would be to
go to Europe, go to France.
You have a better chance there."
And he was like,
"If you go there,
"I'ma also sell some papers
talking about you in my paper.
"If you go and really do this,
"I will not only pay for
you to get to France...
"bitch, I will pay for
your entire schooling.
Boom."
So she was like, "Fantastical."
So...
So.
She took him up on his
offer and she applied
and got accepted
to the most elite
French school for aviation.
Bessie's like,
"Holla at me, bitch.
I'm at Caudron du Crotoy."
Aviation was a scary
thing back in the day.
Planes were like, "Girl,
we don't have seatbelts.
"Girl, we don't have seats.
"Girl, we don't have leather,
and we don't have cup holders."
So Bessie was learning
how to fly in France.
People were flying
with the assumption
that they would
be okay but no...
security that they
would be safe.
Oh, no what?
No security that
they would be safe.
They were like, "My legs
is out of the bottom
Flintstones style."
They're like...
That's a lot of people
d*ed in France.
And then they was dead.
But so she's watching people
die, and she's stressed out,
but she gets her international
piloting license
in seven months,
which, by the way,
I will say for her,
she was the first
female American to get this,
and it's extra expl*sive
because she was black.
Boom.
So she's, like, feeling
herself, right?
So she gets back to New
York and there's, like,
every black publication
there waiting for her.
It's like a media frenzy for
her, like, they're like,
"Bessie, come on, we love you."
And she's like, "Oh,
f*ck, I'm famous.
I'm famous. I'm famous."
And so all the reporters
are like, "Hey, bitch.
"Hey, bitch. Click,
click, click.
Click, click, click."
She goes, "Well, I'ma live
my life as a famous person.
Famous person." She's living...
So Bessie's in New York,
and she's not being able
to come... become a
commercial pilot,
because New York is like,
"Hey, dawg, we see you,
"Bessie, we see that
you're dope as f*ck.
"We're still a little
r*cist as f*ck,
so we won't let you pilot."
So then she decides
that she's like,
"I'm gonna move from New York
to, of all places, Florida."
She was like, "Hey, Florida.
"They wouldn't let me
pilot in New York.
I'm down with the get-down.
What's popping?"
And Florida's like, "It's
a no from me, dawg."
And she's like, "Really?
Y'all on that?"
And they're like, "No, we're
real r*cist down here."
They have, like, a gas
canteen gallon of haterade,
and they're, like,
drinking it out of straws.
They're like, "No, boo.
It's a no-fly zone."
If New York was wiling out,
the south is gonna
give you a run
for your m*therf*cking money.
Bessie said to
herself, she said,
"You know what, self? f*ck this.
"I'm gonna become a trick pilot
"because there's more money
"in doing tricks than,
like, f*cking trying to be
a regular-degular-smegular
pilot."
But give it some,
like, attitude.
You gotta be like...
bitch, who you talking to?
- That is not my car.
- Bitch.
That is my man. You
was not there.
He said what-a-who?
What are you doing
with your shoes?
Are you trying to
get out of here?
No, I'm just like, my foot
just fell into the Nike.
So Bessie, you know,
goes back to Europe
to become a trick pilot.
She's doing tricks in a
Benz LFG Roland plane,
which no other woman had
piloted at that time.
And she was the first
woman to do it.
And she was great at it.
She was great at
private performances
and, like, all
this amazing sh*t.
So she comes back to America.
Air shows at the time
are all segregated,
because it's America,
and she said,
"My air shows need to be segregated...
integrated."
Oh, excuse me, I'm so sorry.
I keep burping. Ew.
I am lit.
God help me.
Okay, so...
So she had integrated air shows
where she was doing
figure eights.
She did wing dives.
She did lunges.
And she also did,
like, parachute jumps
and, like, wing
sails and like...
Like she was in loop-de-loop
after
loop-de-m*therf*cking-loop.
Like, she was in loops
that she was like, "Whoo!"
Loop-de-loop-loop-loop.
She was like, "Yes, loop!"
The audience stands up to
give her a standing ovation,
and they're like, "Let's give
it up for this m*therf*cker."
And the audience claps
at her and they're like,
"Yes, you are young,
you are black,
"like, people didn't
want to let you
"live your life and you lived your life.
Yes, bitch."
She looks at the audience,
and she's like,
"Wow, like, I did that sh*t.
"Like, I f*ck flew
that damn plane.
"I'm a bad bitch. I'm
a f*cking pilot.
"I went to Europe and
learned a foreign languages
"and trained and
I did everything
despite the haters who
are drinking what?"
This isn't a glass of haterade,
but their cup would've
runneth over of haterade.
Because she was the
first woman to do it,
she gave herself the
moniker after that,
like, she was like, "Call
me Queen Bess, bitch."
But then in 1926, she
got offered a flight
for the n*gro Welfare League
to do their Mayday festival
in Jacksonville, Florida.
She was like, "I got this.
I can't let them down."
But while trying to do
a training exercise...
show she was going to do,
a wrench comes
loose in her plane
and it crashes the plane,
and she's thrown 500 feet out
of the plane in the air...
and she dies at the age of 34.
But that's not where
her story ends,
- because she was a trailblazer.
- Mm.
Starting in 1931,
black pilots and black aviators
fly their planes over
Bessie Coleman's grave
every year to commemorate her
for being a pioneer for
people of color and women
to get into aviation and flight.
In 1992, Mae Jemison,
which was the first
African-American
woman in space...
and the one thing she
took into space with her
was a picture of her idol,
which was the first
black woman to aviate, ever,
who was the Queen
Bess, Bessie Coleman.
And she looks at the
picture of Bessie Coleman,
and Bessie's like,
"Bitch, you got this,"
like, she's like, "I did
all of this for you.
"You better eat this sh*t up
alive because I lived and d*ed
"by the, what, the
propeller and the plane
for you to be in a
f*cking spaceship,"
and that's exactly what
the f*ck she said to her.
I think she d*ed doing
what she loved.
She d*ed doing what
she believed in.
That's li'l Bessie.
I think you should fly.
Oh, excuse me, I burped.
So what are you making?
What is your drink of
choice this evening?
The drink of choice
for Amber Ruffin this
evening is a margarita,
but not just a margarita,
a spicy margarita.
Now, why you go spicy
on your margaritas?
Thank you for asking.
'Cause I felt like it.
Hey, everybody,
I'm Amber Ruffin,
and I'm here to talk about
the Little Rock Nine.
I can't reach you.
- I got to you.
- Oh, you got up.
♪ One more night ♪
♪ Yeah, we're gonna celebrate ♪
- ♪ One more night ♪ - ♪
All right, oh, yeah ♪
♪ Ta-pa-po-pa-po ♪
Our story starts in Arkansas.
Little Rock, to be specific.
It's 1957.
The Supreme Court has just ruled
in the case of Brown versus
the Board of Education
that separate is not equal.
So their local NAACP went
out to the black community
and found nine kids to go
to Central High School,
the premier high school
in Little Rock, Arkansas.
So these kids are like, "We
are the Little Rock Nine.
We are f*cking nine visions
of black excellence."
"We will go to school,
and we'll change the world.
It'll be great."
So then the governor of
Arkansas, Orval Faubus,
finds out that these kids
are planning to integrate,
and this bitch, Orval Fartbus...
You can fart all you
want on the Fartbus.
Anyway, Orval Fartbus was like,
"Hey, if these kids integrate,
the streets will run
red with blood."
Orval Fartbus is a bitch.
Um...
No, he's a bitch.
So, then,
the kids show up to school
on September 4th, 1957.
The first day of school,
the senior in the group
of the Little Rock
Nine is Ernest Green,
and he is like, "Oh, my gosh.
There is an ass-load of
angry white people."
This angry white mob was
like, "We don't like you.
"You need to go away. We are
going to b*at you up...
and hang you from a tree."
That's not funny.
Meanwhile, on the
other side of school,
Elizabeth Eckford, the ninth
of the Little Rock Nine,
is like, "Oh, f*ck, I'm
here all by myself.
"Oh, my God, there's a
huge mob of white people.
This is terrifying."
They're yelling,
and they have signs, and
they're shouting sh*t.
And they are like, "Hey.
You're white.
"I mean, I'm white,
and you're black,
so that means I don't like you."
So she gathers herself
and this girl is G'd up,
f*cking face stone-cold,
and walking through
these people who
want to pick her up
and break her in two, just
walking through like a G,
and she sees the
Arkansas National Guard.
"They must be here to
help me," she thinks.
She quickens her
pace, and she goes,
"Hey, these white people
are trying to k*ll me.
Please save me."
And they, like,
block her entrance.
They are letting other
white students in.
And she's like,
"What is the deal?
"You are the National
f*cking Guard.
If anybody needs to be
guarded, it's me, here, now."
So she leaves school.
She sits down at the bus stop,
and the white people
are surrounding her,
and they're like, "Uh,
we don't like you.
You are poopy."
She waits several
minutes for the bus.
The bus pulls up, and
she's like, "Thank God,
"I can finally get out of here.
"This isn't the last
I will see of you,
"but also, f*cking f*ck,
can I just get a
f*cking education?"
So...
That was the first
attempt, and they lost.
So attempt number two.
They regroup. They go
at it again in a week.
They all got together this time,
and they all entered school
at the same place
at the same time.
The Little Rock police force
escorts the children
into school,
and they say, "Hey, look.
"Let me catch you
out on the street
"any other day, and
then who knows what,
but today, we'll
take care of you."
They escort the
children into school,
and they hold the line
so that the crazy
angry white mob does
not act a fool.
But the angry mob,
they break through
the police line
and goes into the school,
and they're like,
"Ah! We hate black
people so much!
We're coming in this
school to snatch you out."
So the cops are like, "f*ck."
So they get away in
the nick of time
because these
people are so angry
that they, like, b*at up cops
and push them out of the way
so they can get to
these children.
White people.
So they go to their houses.
These kids are now
like, "Oh, man.
"There's nothing we can do.
I feel very discouraged.
"All of these white
people are extra crazy.
They are very mad."
Ernest Green turns to
the group and he says,
"You know what, we need to
continue through to school
"because all of
these white people
"are going to think we
are to be f*ck with.
We absolutely can't give up."
So... ba-ba-da-doo...
the story of the crazy white
people of Little Rock,
Arkansas, finds its
way to Eisenhower,
and he is like, "This sh*t
is f*cking embarrassing.
"These white people are
f*cking my sh*t up.
"How dare these people
think that they can use
mob mentali... ty to over...
rule?"
None of these words are words
that have ever come
out of my mouth.
f*ck.
So President Eisenhower
says, "I'm gonna send in
1,000 troops from the
101st Airborne."
Not a hundred of them. A
hundred would have done it.
Not 200, not 300, but
1,000 of these people.
The Little Rock Nine
arrive at school together,
and the 101st Airborne is there.
And they say, "Hey, look,
we are going to take
care of you today."
"We're gonna take
care of you today."
"We are gonna take"...
Beep. Where were we?
Oh, okay, so they were like,
"We're gonna take
care of you today."
They escort the
children into school.
They're holding back the
crazy white people.
So the Little Rock Nine is like,
"This is the sh*t. We did it.
We win everything.
Hooray for us."
So they go into school,
but once they get in the
school, they realize,
"Oh, sh*t. Now we have to
deal with these children."
These white children
are like, "Aha!
"You finally made
it into school.
"Now you belong to us.
We're gonna b*at you up
every chance we get."
She's like, "Why?"
and they're like,
"We don't know exactly
why we hate you.
"We just know that
it's something
"our parents have
handed down to us,
"and so we're just acting
in what we believe
are their best interests."
And Elizabeth is like,
"Well, I don't know
"that that is their
best interest.
Maybe if you just get
along with me..."
And they're like, "No!"
These children give the
Little Rock Nine hell
for a whole year, and
these little babies
are being the blacketiest black
black that ever blacked,
and it is blackening up my soul.
Mmm.
Stay tuned for more
"Drunk History."
Why'd you make me drink that?
I'm making this drink.
Are you mad?
- Not at all.
- What are you gonna drink?
You've had too many drinks.
I really feel fine,
- but also, like, I've said that before.
- Oh, yeah, you really feel fine.
Okay, so,
Ernest Green graduated,
and he was like,
"Oh, thank God, these
people almost k*lled me."
So Ernest Green walks
across the stage,
grabs his diploma, looks
out in the audience,
and sees Dr. Martin Luther King!
Ernest was like, "Oh, my God!
That is Dr. Martin
Luther the King!"
He's like, "These people
almost k*lled me,
but I did it, isn't this crazy?"
And then Dr. Martin
Luther King was like,
"Well, there's nothing
else you have to do
"'cause you've already
gone through it.
Good job."
Oh, look at my nails.
They're so beautiful. Hi.
Hi, you're so pretty.
Um...
What was I talking about?
Oh, okay, then the 40-year
anniversary was in 1997.
Oprah Winfrey had
them on her show,
and Oprah Winfrey was like,
"Hey, Little Rock Nine,
"guess who I have on the show?
The children that
tormented you."
And the bullies were like,
"Look, back in 1957,
"we were little punks,
but now we're cool dudes
"who love you, and we're sorry
"because we were mean to you
"and being mean to black
people is not cool anymore,
so we just wanted to absolve
ourselves of that."
Their apologies were not
up to 2019 standards.
Their apologies were
frankly bullshit.
But the Little Rock
Nine forgave them
for all of the terrible
things they did,
and, uh, that is more than
f*cking I ever would've done.
Okay, so, in 1999,
President Bill Clinton
gave each of the
Little Rock Nine
the Congressional Gold Medal
because what they went
through was f*cking amazing.
It's shocking that
anyone went through it,
much less children.
Cannot point out enough
that they were children.
- Mm.
- So.
The Little Rock Nine wins.
Everyone else is
a piece of sh*t.
The end.
Racism is fixed, and
everything's fine.
Oh, cool. Happy 2019.
Are you cool?
Happy 2019.
Um, I don't know
what I was saying,
but I love margaritas.
And black people!
06x04 - Trailblazers
Watch/Buy Amazon
"Drunk History" is presented by an inebriated narrator struggling to recount events from American history, while A-list talent perform historical reenactments.
"Drunk History" is presented by an inebriated narrator struggling to recount events from American history, while A-list talent perform historical reenactments.