At the end of April in 1926, Bessie's Jenny arrived in
Jacksonville. On the evening of April 30th, she and her mechanic
took the plane up for a test flight. Once aloft, the plane
malfunctioned and the mechanic, who was piloting the plane from
the front seat, lost control of the plane. Bessie fell from the
open cockpit several hundred feet to her death. thousand
mourners attended a memorial service for Bessie before her body
traveled by train from Orlando to Chicago. An estimated ten
thousand people filed past Bessie's coffin to pay their last
respects. Thousands more attended the funeral of that little
girl from Texas who dreamt of a better life as she picked cotton
at the dawn of the 20th century. Only after her death did Bessie
receive the recognition that she deserved. Her dream of a flying
school for African American's became a reality when William J.
Powell established the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in Los Angeles,
California in 1929. As a result of being affiliated, educated or
inspired directly or indire