1/4 Dollar 'Washington Quarter' Bessie Coleman

Bessie Coleman appears on this quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program, authorized by Congress in 2020 to honor women whose contributions had been largely absent from circulating coinage. Coleman's inclusion is pointed: she was the first African American and first Native American woman to hold a pilot's license, earning it in France in 1921 after U.S. flight schools refused her enrollment on racial grounds. She learned French specifically to pursue the credential.

She died in 1926 during a test flight in Jacksonville, Florida — a mechanical failure sent the aircraft into an uncontrolled dive. She was 34.