George Crum - Inventor

Photo from thefreegeorge.com

Inventor of the Potato Chip

Every time a person crunches into a potato chip, he or she is enjoying the delicious taste of one of the world's most famous snacks – a treat that might not exist without the contribution of black inventor George Crum.

The son of an African-American father and a Native American mother, Crum was working as the chef in the summer of 1853 when he incidentally invented the chip. It all began when a patron who ordered a plate of French-fried potatoes sent them back to Crum's kitchen because he felt they were too thick and soft.

To teach the picky patron a lesson, Crum sliced a new batch of potatoes as thin as he possibly could, and then fried them until they were hard and crunchy. Finally, to top them off, he added a generous heaping of salt. To Crum's surprise, the dish ended up being a hit with the patron and a new snack was born!

Years later, Crum opened his own restaurant that had a basket of potato chips on every table. Though Crum never attempted to patent his invention, the snack was eventually mass-produced and sold in bags – providing thousands of jobs nationwide.  "n.p. Famous Black Inventors. Famous Black Inventors, 2008. Web. 17 Mar 2011."

Fascinating facts about George Crum inventor of the Potato Chip in 1853.

Photo from The Great Idea Finder

AT A GLANCE:

In the summer of 1853, Native American George Crum was employed as a chef at an elegant resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. One dinner guest found Crum's French fries too thick for his liking and rejected the order. Crum decided to rile the guest by producing fries too thin and crisp to skewer with a fork. The plan backfired. The guest was ecstatic over the browned, paper-thin potatoes, and other diners began requesting Crum's potato chips

Inventor: George Crum (a.k.a. George Speck*)

Criteria:    First to invent.

Birth:        1822 Saratoga Lake, New York

Death:      1914 Saratoga Lake, New York

Nationality: Native American

Invention: Potato Chips in 1853

Definition: noun / po·ta·to chips

Function: Snack food made of a thin slice of white potato that has been cooked until crisp and then usually salted. Also known as Saratoga Chips or potato crisps.

Patent: Never patented.

Milestones:

1853 George Crum invents the Saratoga Chip, a thin French fry, now known as the potato chip

1960 Crum opened his own restaurant, featuring potato chips in a basket placed on every table.

1895 William Tappendon of Cleveland, Ohio begins selling potato chips as a food in grocery stores 

1908 Leominster Potato Chip Co., Leominster, MA (later changed the name to Tri-Sum) 

1910 Mikesell's Potato Chips, Dayton, Ohio. 

1910 George Dentler, Houston, Texas. 

1913 Dan Dee Pretzel and Potato Chip Company, Cleveland, Ohio. 

1918 Num Num, Cleveland, Ohio 

1919 Blue Bell - Illinois 

1921 Wise Delicatessen Company, Berwick, Pennsylvania 

1921 Utz - Hanover, Pennsylvania. started as the Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips

1921 Magic Food Co, later Golden Flake*, Birmingham, Alabama. 

1924 Moore's, Bristol, Virginia. 

1926 Scudder's - Monterey Park, California

1930 Better Made - Detroit, Michigan

1932 Lay's - founded by Herman Lay of Nashville, Tennessee

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The Story

As a world food, potatoes are second in human consumption only to rice. And as thin, salted, crisp chips, they are America's favorite snack food. Potato chips originated in New England as one man's variation on the French-fried potato, and their production was the result not of a sudden stroke of culinary invention but of a fit of pique.

In the summer of 1853, Native American George Crum was employed as a chef at an elegant resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. On Moon Lake Lodge's restaurant menu were French-fried potatoes, prepared by Crum in the standard, thick-cut French style that was popularized in 1700s France and enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson as ambassador to that country. Ever since Jefferson brought the recipe to America and served French fries to guests at Monticello, the dish was popular and serious dinner fare.

At Moon Lake Lodge, one dinner guest found chef Crum's French fries too thick for his liking and rejected the order. Crum cut and fried a thinner batch, but these, too, met with disapproval. Exasperated, Crum decided to rile the guest by producing French fries too thin and crisp to skewer with a fork. The plan backfired. The guest was ecstatic over the browned, paper-thin potatoes, and other diners requested Crum's potato chips, which began to appear on the menu as Saratoga Chips, a house specialty.

In 1860 George opened his own restaurant in a building on Malta Avenue near Saratoga Lake, and within a few years was catering to wealthy clients including William Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and Henry Hilton. His restaurant closed around 1890 and he died in 1914 at the age of 92.

The idea of making them as a food item for sale in grocery stores came to many people at around the same time, but perhaps the first was William Tappendon of Cleveland, OH, in 1895.   He began making chips in his kitchen and delivering to neighborhood stores but later converted a barn in the rear of his house into "one of the first potato chip factories" in the country.

At that time, potatoes were tediously peeled and sliced by hand. It was the invention of the mechanical potato peeler in the 1920s that paved the way for potato chips to soar from a small specialty item to a top-selling snack food. For several decades after their creation, potato chips were largely a Northern dinner dish.

In 1921, Bill and Sallie Utz started the Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips in Hanover, Pennsylvania. Salie Utz used her knowledge of good Pennsylvania Dutch cooking to make the chips in a small summer house behind their home. The hand-operated equipment Salie used made about fifty pounds of potato chips per hour. While Salie stayed home making chips, Bill delivered them to "mom and pop" grocery stores and farmer's markets in the Hanover, PA and Baltimore, MD area.

Out in Monterey Park, California  the Scudders company started making potato chips in 1926. Laura Scudder is credited with developing the wax paper bag for potato chips which made a wider distribution possible because of its preserving properties.  Prior to this bag potato chips were dispensed in bulk from barrels or glass display cases. 

In 1932, Herman Lay founded Lay's in Nashville, Tenn., which distributed potato chips from a factory in Atlanta, Ga. Herman Lay, a traveling salesman in the South, helped popularize the food from Atlanta to Tennessee. Lay peddled potato chips to Southern grocers out of the trunk of his car, building a business and a name that would become synonymous with the thin, salty snack. Lay's potato chips became the first successfully marketed national brand.

The industry that George Crum launched in 1853 continues to grow and prosper. Potato chips have become America's favorite snack. U.S. retail sales of potato chip are over $6 billion a year.  In 2003 the U.S. potato chip industry employed more than 65,000 people.

*George Speck was born to Abraham and Catherine Speck. George also used the name Crum, as his father did while working as a jockey. "

N.D. The Great Idea Finder. N.D., 20 Apr 2007 . Web. 17 Mar 2011."

Regina Benjamin - Current U.S. Surgeon General

Photo from U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services

Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA is the 18^th Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service. As America’s Doctor, she provides the public with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and the health of the nation. Dr. Benjamin also oversees the operational command of 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in locations around the world to promote, protect, and advance the health of the American People.

Dr. Benjamin is Founder and Former CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Alabama, former Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile, and immediate Past Chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States In 1995, she was the first physician under age 40 and the first African-American woman to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees. She served as President of the American Medical Association Education and Research Foundation and Chair of the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA). In 2002 she became President of the Medical Association State of Alabama, making her the first African American female president of a State Medical Society in the United States.

Dr. Benjamin has a BS in chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans; MD degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham; an MBA from Tulane University and eleven honorary doctorates. She attended Morehouse School of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency in Macon, Ga. She established a clinic in a small fishing village in Alabama to help its uninsured residents. Dr. Benjamin persevered through Hurricane Georges in 1998, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and a devastating fire, in 2006, often putting up her own money to cover expenses. She also became nationally prominent for her business acumen and humane approach to preventive medicine.

Dr. Benjamin is a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She was a Kellogg National Fellow and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader. Some of her numerous board memberships include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Catholic Health Association, and Morehouse School of Medicine.

In 1998 Dr Benjamin was the United States recipient of the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights. She was named by Time Magazine as one of the “Nation’s 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under.” She was featured in a New York Times article, “Angel in a White Coat,” in People Magazine, on the December 1999 cover of Clarity Magazine and was on the January 2003 cover of Reader’s Digest, She was also “Person of the Week” on ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and “Woman of the Year’ by CBS This Morning. She received the 2000 National Caring Award which was inspired by Mother Teresa, received the papal honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Benedict XVI and was awarded a MacArthur Genius Award Fellowship."n.p. SurgeonGeneral.gov. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d. Web. 16 Mar 2011."

Vonetta Flowers - Women's Olympic Bobsleder

Photo Courtsey of Wikimedia Commons

On February 19, 2002, people in Alabama were glued to their TV's, curious to see how the state's only bobsledder would perform against the rest of the world. In less than 1 minute 48 seconds, tears of joy began to flow, because the young woman from Birmingham, Alabamawho dared to try an untraditional sport had left her permanent foot prints in the snow by becoming the 1^st person of African descent to win a Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics.People from all over the world soon became familiar with the story of how a little girl's dream of competing in the Summer Olympics led her to tryout for the U.S. Women's Olympic Bobsled Team. In only 18 months after answering a help wanted ad, she would win the inaugural bobsled event and shatter the racial barrier in the process. Many were shocked to discover the struggles she encountered, others were encouraged by the sacrifices she made and all were inspired by her determination to pursue a life long dream of becoming an Olympian.

Inspired by Her Childhood Coach

In the summer of 1982, Coach DeWitt Thomas arrived at Jonesboro Elementary School with one goal in mind. He went there to recruit the fastest boys and girls for the Marvel City Striders (currently Alabama Striders). All of the students lined up in the middle of the parking lot and raced towards the finish line. In order to save time, Coach Thomas only recorded the 1^st initial and the last name on his time sheet. Once this list was compiled, he ranked each child according to his or her time and called the parents, hoping they would allow their son or daughter to compete on his track team.

According to the time sheet, V. Jeffery recorded the fastest time. Coach Thomas thought that the little boy's name might have been Victor or Vincent. It never crossed his mind that V. Jeffery was a girl. Coach Thomas was very surprised and excited to discover that V. Jeffery was a young girl who was extremely talented and easily motivated.

Coach Thomas describes Vonetta as "one in a million" and smiles each time he tells the story about the little girl with exceptional God given talent and a heart of gold. Coach Thomas truly believed that Vonetta would one day compete in the Olympics, but, he had no idea that the Olympic track where history would be made would be covered with ice and snow.

For the next 10 years, Coach Thomas watched a shy young girl develop into a very determined young lady. During that time, she would win almost every race that she entered.

She Became the First

In 1992 Vonetta graduated from P.D. Jackson Olin High School, where she participated in track and field, volleyball and basketball. Vonetta became the 1^st in her family to attend college, when she accepted a Track and Field scholarship to the University of Alabama atBirmingham. By the time she graduated, Vonetta was one of the university's most decorated athletes, with 35 conference titles and victories in the Penn Relays and The Olympic Festival, and its 1^st Seven-Time All-American.

Vonetta also hold the honor of being the 1^st person of African descent (male or female) - -from any country - to win a GOLD medal in the Winter Olympics!

The Road to Gold

In both 1996 and 2000, Vonetta qualified for the Olympic Trials, held in Atlanta, Georgia andSacramento, California, respectively. At the 1996 trials, she competed in the 100 meter dash and the long jump but was unsuccessful in her quest to earn a spot on the team. Vonetta spent the next four years focusing all of her energy on training for an opportunity to compete at the 2000 Olympics in the long jump. She hoped to have an outstanding performance at the 2000 Olympic Trials, but just a few months before the trials began, Vonetta found herself lying on a hospital bed getting ready for her 5^th surgery in 8 years. Against all odds, she believed in herself and decided to lace up her spikes one last time, but it wasn't meant to be.After a disappointing performance at the 2000 trials, Vonetta felt it was time to retire from Track and Field, with hopes of starting a family.

Two days after the 2000 Olympic Trials, Vonetta's husband, Johnny, spotted a flyer urging Track and Field athletes to tryout for the U.S. bobsled team. The only thing Vonetta and Johnny knew about bobsledding was what they learned from the movie, "Cool Runnings."Johnny had also been an outstanding Track and Field athlete, even so, their chances seemed so slim that the idea of them making the team became more and more amusing.Regardless, Vonetta really was not interested. She was still dealing with the reality that she would not live out her lifelong dream of competing in the Olympics. After several hours of joking back and forth, however, she agreed to accompany Johnny as he tried out for the team. Shortly after the competition started, Johnny pulled his hamstring, and Vonetta agreed to live out his dream by completing the six-item test. That unselfish act would quickly change their lives.

Less than 2 months after stepping in for Johnny, Vonetta was competing for the U.S. in bobsled, traveling to foreign countries and eating foods the names of which she couldn't even pronounce. Vonetta's Track and Field background was an advantage in bobsled, and she quickly became the #1 brake woman in the U.S. By the end of her rookie season, Vonetta and her former teammate, Bonny Warner, were ranked 2^nd in the US and 3^rd in the world.

A year later Vonetta and her new partner, Jill Bakken, slid into history by winning the Gold Medal at the inaugural Women's Olympic bobsled event, which was the 1^st medal for a U.S. bobsled team in 46 years!

"n.p. VonettaFlowers.com. Vonetta Flowers.com, n.d. Web. 15 Mar 2011."

Mabel Fairbanks - Figure Skater

Courtesy of Harlick

She was born in New York City. As a young girl in the 1930s, Fairbanks discovered her lifetime passion watching a Sonia Henje movie. She then saw a pair of black skates in a pawnshop window and talked the guy down to $1.50. They were two sizes too big, but that didn't stop Fairbanks. She stuffed them with cotton, found her balance on blades by going up and down the stairs in her building, and took to the nearby frozen lake. It wasn't long before Fairbanks was sailing across the ice. When a passerby suggested she try out the rink in Central Park, she was soon skating and attaining solid 6.0 judging, but the pro clubs wouldn't have her because of her race.


"I remember they said to me, 'we don't have Negroes in ice shows.' "But I didn't let that get in my way, because I loved to skate."


Fairbanks continued to refine her skill and returned to the rink again and again. Then one day, the manager noted her persistence and the shiny pair of new skates her uncle bought her from the Macy's basement, and he let her inside. From then on, Fairbanks' ability and sparkle shattered the race barrier at that pivotal rink, and professional skaters started giving her free lessons. In the 1940s, Fairbanks came to Los Angeles and performed in nightclubs like Cyro's.


When Fairbanks was invited to skate on the road with the Rhapsody On Ice show, she jumped at the chance, even though they said they needed her as "someone to skate in the dark countries." She wowed international audiences, returning to Los Angeles only to find it still blind to her talent but not to her color. "They had a sign at the Pasadena Winter Gardens that read "Colored Trade Not Solicited," she remembers. "But it was a public place, so my uncle had newspaper articles written about it and passed them out everywhere until they finally let me in."


She landed a role on KTLA television's Frosty Follies show and continued to perform at local showrooms, yet Fairbanks still wasn't allowed to join professional skating clubs. She got herself and other Blacks in by sending for individual memberships from the United States Professional Skating Association (USPSA), without letting them know they were black.


Fairbanks opened the door for other young Blacks to compete in skating, but her pro years had passed, so she became a teacher and coach in Culver City and the Hollywood Polar Palace. Famed Olympic medalist Scott Hamilton learned from Fairbanks when he was just a young beginner, and she gave free lessons to those too poor to pay.


While at the Polar Palace, her students included many celebrities and their children, like Natalie Cole, Ricky Nelson, Danny Kaye, and Jimmy Durante. It was Fairbanks who paired the Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner while watching them skate. Many of her Black skating students went on to be Olympic gold medallists because she skated over, around and through walls of racism. Fairbanks' ability to do and teach has helped cultivate some of the finest skaters of the century. "If I had been allowed to go in to the Olympics or Ice Capades like I wanted to then, I may not have helped other Blacks like I did, and coached such wonderful skaters, and I think all that has been just as important and meaningful."


You could find Fairbanks rink side, coaching pro skaters at Iceland in Van Nuys. While the "official" skating world denied Fairbanks’ contributions, world-renowned skaters sought her out as a coach. Her students include the United States and World Champions Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner, Kristi Yamaguchi, Rudy Galindo, and Tiffany Chin. In 1998, Fairbanks was honored with the Silver Achievement Award, Sports Category, at the YWCA's Leader Luncheon at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles.


She taught and coached on the ice until she was 79 years old and was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, a disease that weakens the muscles. Mabel Fairbanks died at 85 in September 2001 in Los Angeles.  "Lyman, Darryl. AfricanAmericanRegistry.com.  African American Registry, n.p. Web. 03 Mar 2011."

Mabel Fairbanks: Breaking Down Barriers

Since the 1940s, much of the progress made in breaking down the color barrier in U.S. figure skating can be directly attributed to Mabel Fairbanks. Prevented from skating competitively herself, Fairbanks nonetheless excelled as a professional performer and coach during her 60-year career.

In 1938, using a pair of skates that she purchased for a dollar in a pawnshop, Fairbanks began teaching herself on a small piece of ice in Harlem. She soon progressed to the local ice rink, although racial prejudice forced her to practice before the rink opened for the day. It was here that she caught the attention of nine-time national champion Maribel Vinson, who agreed to train her in secret and for free. By the mid-1940s, she had taken and passed all of the required competition tests, but, unable to join any of the clubs that sponsored figure skaters because of her color, she was ineligible for national or international competition. She turned instead to ice shows, but again found that, as an African-American, she was not welcome. Refusing to be defeated, she created her own shows and spent the 1940s and 1950s touring the United States and abroad as the principal skater.

During the 1950s and 1960s, she turned to coaching, and her students included many who subsequently went on to world and national competition success. Fairbanks saw the potential in partnering Tai Babalonia with Randy Gardner, and they later went on to win five national titles and the world pairs championship in 1979. She also was involved in shaping the early careers of Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamagucci; as well as Atoy Wilson, who became the first African-American to win a national title in 1966; and Richard Ewell and Michelle McCladdie, who together were the first African-Americans to win a national pairs title in 1972.

The racism that she encountered served only to make her more determined to carve out a skating career for herself. In this previously white-dominated sport, her legacy made it possible for today's minority skaters to be judged on their skill and performance alone. This was acknowledged in 1997 when Fairbanks became the first African-American to be inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. She was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a muscular degenerative disease. Fairbanks passed away in October, just days before she would be inducted into The Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame at the 2001 Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner. She will be remembered forever as a woman of remarkable strength and determination whose contribution to the sport has eased the path for today's African-American figure skaters. "n.p. Women's Sports Foundation.org. Women's Sports Foundation, n.d. Web. 03 Mar 2011."

Photo from NewsOne.com

Bessie Coleman - Aviator

Credits - Allstar Project

Bessie Coleman, the daughter of a poor, southern, African American family, became one of the most famous women and African Americans in aviation history. "Brave Bessie" or "Queen Bess," as she became known, faced the double difficulties of racial and gender discrimination in early 20th-century America but overcame such challenges to become the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. Coleman not only thrilled audiences with her skills as a barnstormer, but she also became a role model for women and African Americans. Her very presence in the air threatened prevailing contemporary stereotypes. She also fought segregation when she could by using her influence as a celebrity to effect change, no matter how small.

Coleman was born on January 26, 1892, in Atlanta, Texas, to a large African American family (although some histories incorrectly report 1893 or 1896). She was one of 13 children. Her father was a Native American and her mother an African American. Very early in her childhood, Bessie and her family moved to Waxahachie, Texas, where she grew up picking cotton and doing laundry for customers with her mother.

Bessie Colemanïs license to fly.
Credits - Allstar Project

The Coleman family, like most African Americans who lived in the Deep South during the early 20th century, faced many disadvantages and difficulties. Bessie's family dealt with segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial violence. Because of such obstacles, Bessie's father decided to move the family to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma. He believed they could carve out a much better living for themselves there. Bessie's mother, however, did not want to live on an Indian reservation and decided to remain in Waxahachie. Bessie, and several of her sisters, also stayed in Texas.

Bessie was a highly motivated individual. Despite working long hours, she still found time to educate herself by borrowing books from a traveling library. Although she could not attend school very often, Bessie learned enough on her own to graduate from high school. She then went on to study at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. Nevertheless, because of limited finances, Bessie only attended one semester of college.

By 1915, Bessie had grown tired of the South and moved to Chicago. There, she began living with two of her brothers. She attended beauty school and then started working as a manicurist in a local barbershop.

Bessie first considered becoming a pilot after reading about aviation and watching newsreels about flight. But the real impetus behind her decision to become an aviator was her brother John's incessant teasing. John had served overseas during World War I and returned home talking about, according to historian Doris Rich, "the superiority of French women over those of Chicago's South Side." He even told Bessie that French women flew airplanes and declared that flying was something Bessie would never be able to do. John's jostling was the final push that Bessie needed to start pursuing her pilot's license. She immediately began applying to flight schools throughout the country, but because she was both female and an African American, no U.S. flight school would take her.

Soon after being turned down by American flight schools, Coleman met Robert Abbott, publisher of the well-known African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender. He recommended that Coleman save some money and move to France, which he believed was the world's most racially progressive nation, and obtain her pilot's license there. Coleman quickly heeded Abbott's advice and quit her job as a manicurist to begin work as the manager of a chili parlor, a more lucrative position. She also started learning French at night. In November 1920, Bessie took her savings and sailed for France. She also received some additional funds from Abbott and one of his friends.

Coleman attended the well-known Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. There she learned to fly using French Nieuport airplanes. On June 15, 1921, Coleman obtained her pilot's license from Federation Aeronautique Internationale after only seven months. She was the first black woman in the world to earn an aviator's license. After some additional training in Paris, Coleman returned to the United States in September 1921.

Coleman's main goals when she returned to America were to make a living flying and to establish the first African American flight school. Because of her color and gender, however, she was somewhat limited in her first goal. Barnstorming seemed to be the only way for her to make money, but to become an aerial daredevil, Coleman needed more training. Once again, Bessie applied to American flight schools, and once again they rejected her. So in February 1922, she returned to Europe. After learning most of the standard barnstorming tricks, Coleman returned to the United States.

Bessie flew in her first air show on September 3, 1922, at Glenn Curtiss Field in Garden City, New York. The show, which was sponsored by the Chicago Defender, was a promotional vehicle to spotlight Coleman. Bessie became a celebrity, thanks to the help of her benefactor Abbott. She subsequently began touring the country giving exhibitions, flight lessons, and lectures. During her travels, she strongly encouraged African Americans and women to learn to fly.

In February 1923, Coleman suffered her first major accident while preparing for an exhibition in Los Angeles; her Jenny airplane's engine unexpectedly stalled and she crashed. Knocked unconscious by the accident, Coleman received a broken leg, some cracked ribs, and multiple cuts on her face. Shaken badly by the incident, it took her over a year to recover fully.

Coleman started performing again full time in 1925. On June 19, she dazzled thousands as she "barrel-rolled" and "looped-the-loop" over Houston's Aerial Transport Field. It was her first exhibition in her home state of Texas, and even local whites attended, although they watched from separate segregated bleachers.

Even though Coleman realized that she had to work within the general confines of southern segregation, she did try to use her fame to challenge racial barriers, if only a little. Soon after her Houston show, Bessie returned to her old hometown of Waxahachie to give an exhibition. As in Houston, both whites and African Americans wanted to attend the event and plans called for segregated facilities. Officials even wanted whites and African Americans to enter the venue through separate "white" and "Negro" admission gates, but Coleman refused to perform under such conditions. She demanded only one admission gate. After much negotiation, Coleman got her way and Texans of both races entered the air field through the same gate, but then separated into their designated sections once inside.

Coleman's aviation career ended tragically in 1926. On April 30, she died while preparing for a show in Jacksonville, Florida. Coleman was riding in the passenger seat of her "Jenny" airplane while her mechanic William Wills was piloting the aircraft. Bessie was not wearing her seat belt at the time so that she could lean over the edge of the cockpit and scout potential parachute landing spots (she had recently added parachute-jumping to her repetorie and was planning to perform the feat the next day). But while Bessie was scouting from the back seat, the plane suddenly dropped into a steep nosedive and then flipped over and catapulted her to her death. Wills, who was still strapped into his seat, struggled to regain control of the aircraft, but died when he crashed in a nearby field. After the accident, investigators discovered that Wills, who was Coleman's mechanic, had lost control of the aircraft because a loose wrench had jammed the plane's instruments.

Bessie Coleman was honored in 1995 by the U.S. Postal Service with a Black Heritage commemorative stamp.
Credits - FAA

Coleman's impact on aviation history, and particularly African Americans, quickly became apparent following her death. Bessie Coleman Aero Clubs suddenly sprang up throughout the country. On Labor Day, 1931, these clubs sponsored the first all-African American Air Show, which attracted approximately 15,000 spectators. That same year, a group of African American pilots established an annual flyover of Coleman's grave in Lincoln Cemetery in Chicago. Coleman's name also began appearing on buildings in Harlem.

Despite her relatively short career, Bessie Coleman strongly challenged early 20th century stereotypes about white supremacy and the inabilities of women. By becoming the first licensed African American female pilot, and performing throughout the country, Coleman proved that people did not have to be shackled by their gender or the color of their skin to succeed and realize their dreams. "Onkst, David H. U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. U.S, Centennial of Flight Commission, n.d. Web. 1 Mar 2011."

Links:

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Coleman/EX11.htm

http://www.notablebiographies.com/Co-Da/Coleman-Bessie.html