Bessie Coleman, the first Black and Native American female pilot, will be featured on the U.S. quarter, HuffPost reports.
According to the National Women’s History Museum, Coleman attended aviation school in France, where she eventually received her pilot’s license in 1921. The pilot was known for performing tricks in the air, including the “loop-the-loops” and the number eight.
She went on to provide flight lessons and encourage Black women to reach their dreams.
Coleman will be featured on the coin, along with former first lady and author Eleanor Roosevelt, Mexican American journalist and activist Jovita Idár and America’s first prima ballerina Maria Tallchief. The coins will be issued throughout 2023.
The women will be featured on the tails side of the coin next year as part of the 2023 American Women Quarters Program.
The program “features coins with reverse (tails) designs emblematic of the accomplishments and contributions of trailblazing American women,” according to the United States Mint.
Edith Kanaka’ole, a former Hawaiian teacher and hula educator, will also be featured on quarters next year.
Kanaka’ole touched the lives of many as a renowned composer, chanter, dancer, teacher and entertainer, ABC News reports. She was an integral part of keeping the hula tradition alive during the Hawaiian Renaissance in the 1970s — a time when Hawaiians, especially those of Native populations, were reintegrating their cultural traditions back into their lives.
Maya Angelou, Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Nina Otero-Warren, a suffrage movement leader, and Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American movie star in Hollywood, were featured on the quarter this year.
