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Page 2 of 2 One of Bessie’s goals was to open a school for aviators. She lined up a series of lectures and exhibition flights in Texas to promote this idea. She accumulated enough money for a down payment on a plane from the Curtis Southwestern Airplane and Motor Company. She made the payment at Love Field in Dallas.
Bessie went on another series of lectures in black theaters in Georgia and Florida. She borrowed airplanes so she could continue to fly exhibitions. Bessie refused to perform unless the audiences were desegregated and everyone was allowed to use the same gates. Bessie made the final payment on her airplane in Dallas, with the help of an unknown patron. She arranged to have it flown to Jacksonville, Florida for her next show, scheduled for May 1, 1926.  Her plane arrived in Jacksonville toward the end of April. On the evening of April 30th, Bessie took the plane up with her mechanic for a test flight. Sadly, the plane malfunctioned and the mechanic, who was flying it, lost control. Bessie fell from the open cockpit to her death.
Bessie Coleman was well loved and respected for the racial and social barriers that she conquered. In 1929, William J. Powell established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club for African Americans in Los Angeles. In 1931, the Challenger Pilot’s Association in Chicago began an annual flyover over the cemetery where Bessie was buried. In 1977, more than 45 years later, the women pilots in the Chicago area established the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club. In 1995, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Bessie Coleman stamp. On July 14, 2000, Bessie was inducted into the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame. And now the circle is complete. The town that formed Bessie Coleman, provided her with her strong values, ideals and determination, has officially commemorated her memory with an historical marker that briefly tells her story. To learn more about Bessie Coleman’s remarkable life and the accolades that she received after her untimely death, please visit www.bessiecoleman.com.
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