Coleman's Death

"She liked distance and laughed at danger; she was a patient pioneer that loved adventure and knew the price of progress...People who could have promoted her program while she lived, wept and worshiped her after she died.  I saw the machine from which she fell; twisted wires, burnt metal and broken wheels.  I thought of the countries she crossed, I thought of the thousands she thrilled, and I thought of the price she paid for being a vigilant veteran and teaching the scheme of the sky.  Brave little Bessie Coleman fought with a stout heart and died beneath broken wings; she tried to awaken her people, then reported back to God and wore her purple plume to heaven." - Ross D. Brown (1)

Photo courtesy of: Find A Grave Website

The Curtiss JN-4 plane malfunction was determined to have been caused by a wrench that had been left inside the plane and had jammed the gears.  Fellow pilots explained that had Bessie been flying a newer plane, this would not have happened because the gears would have had a protective covering.          On the tenth anniversary of her death, the Chicago Defender stated, "Though with the crashing of the plane, life ceased for Bessie Coleman, enough members of her race had been inspired by her courage to carry on in the field of aviation, and whatever is accomplished by members of the race in aviation will stand as a memorial to Miss Coleman." (2)         Coleman's grave is now located in Lincoln Cemetary in Cook County, Illinois.  Many different aviation groups perform annual flyovers on the anniversary of her death.

(1) Elizabeth Amelia Hadley Freydberg, Bessie Coleman: The Brownskin Lady Bird (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1994): xii. (2) David Earl Jackson, "Dare-Devil Bessie Coleman Honored," Tri-State Defender, December 13, 1995, 3B.

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