Coachman was unable to access athletic training facilities or participate in organized sports because of the color of her skin.

[1] Added to the list of training barriers was her status as a female athlete during a time of widespread opposition to women in sports.

[2] Coachman attended Monroe Street Elementary School where she was encouraged by her 5th grade teacher, Cora Bailey, and by her aunt, Carrie Spry, despite the reservations of her parents.

Upon enrolling at Madison High School in 1938, she joined the track team, working with Harry E. Lash to develop her skill as an athlete.

[2][3] The scholarship required her to work while studying and training, which included cleaning and maintaining sports facilities as well as mending uniforms.

During the same period, Coachman won three conference championships playing as a guard on the Tuskegee women's basketball team.

Soon after meeting President Harry Truman and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, she was honored with parades from Atlanta to Albany and was thrown a party by Count Basie.

[9] In 1952 she became the first African-American woman to endorse an international product when she was signed as a spokesperson by the Coca-Cola Company[5] who featured her prominently on billboards alongside 1936 Olympic winner Jesse Owens.

[15] Coachman has received recognition for opening the door for future African-American track stars such as Evelyn Ashford, Florence Griffith Joyner, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.