Bessie Coleman Park

Bessie Coleman Park A place for friends, neighbors, and regular visitors to the park to connect with each other, plan activities, and share their photos and memories.

The Chicago Park District improved the Drexel Avenue park site with playground equipment, a sand box, a spray pool, and curving planted areas. On the east side of the park, a slide was inventively built into the side of a hill. In 1990, the park district thoroughly rehabilitated the property, removing the playground equipment and slide, and installing new soft surface playground areas. Officially

named Willow Park in 1973, the property was renamed as part of a Chicago Park District effort to honor the contributions of significant Chicago women in 2005. Bessie Coleman (1896- 1926) was the nation’s first female African American pilot. She worked as a manicurist in a barbershop across the street from Comiskey Park and later ran a chili parlor at 35th and Indiana Ave. After learning from her brother John, who was a veteran, that there were women pilots in Europe, she decided to become a pilot. She went to flight school in France and became the first African American to hold an international pilot license. Bessie Coleman performed various flight stunts in exhibitions in the US and abroad, and campaigned against the segregation of audiences to these exhibitions. Although she was a celebrity throughout the nation, and frequently lectured to black audiences, she never achieved her dream of opening her own flight school. There is a group of African American women pilots known as the Bessie Coleman Aviators Club. A portion of O’Hare and a Chicago Public Library are named after Coleman. It 1995, the US Post Office issued a stamp in her honor. Coleman lived at 41st and South Park Ave. (now Martin Luther King Drive) approximately 2 ½ miles from the park site.

08/25/2017

The Concord grapes on the fence on the Northside of the park are ripening. Please help yourself to anything on the park side. (Be considerate and leave some for everyone, please.)

Check out this great project about our park's namesake.
07/07/2017

Check out this great project about our park's namesake.

Animated short on Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to become a pilot.

06/26/2016

Bummed about Bixler Park construction? Bessie Coleman is a great place to play! Come on over.

Please come and eat with the community on Christmas Eve. We need donations ASAP!!!
12/21/2015

Please come and eat with the community on Christmas Eve. We need donations ASAP!!!

We are feeding members of the community Christmas Eve. Due to a slight change in plans we find ourselves currently with no ingredients!!1 Please help by donating perishable ingredients and/or money before 9 am Wednesday December 23. Some of the NON PERISHABLE or DESSERT requests however can be del…

Come on out to Bixler!!
12/04/2015

Come on out to Bixler!!

The group's founder said summer is coming so it's important to recruit now.

10/09/2013

By JEFFREY BISHKU-AYKUL Assistant to the Editor Jackson Park’s Dickerson Playlot, located along the 1600 block of 56th Street, and the playground at Bessie Coleman Park, 5445 S. Drexel Ave., will be open this month after renovations were made as part of a Chicago Parks District (CPD) initiative. Bes...

10/03/2013

The fences are down! We're open again!

10/01/2013

From Twitter: It's expected 2 open mid-day tomorrow to ensure equipment passes all safety inspections.We apologize for the delay!...

A monstrous mound of wood chips is delivered and installers begin laying tarp and chips.
09/21/2013

A monstrous mound of wood chips is delivered and installers begin laying tarp and chips.

09/18/2013

An update, via Chicago Park District on twitter: " We anticipate Bessie Coleman Playground to open by October 1. Thanks for you question!" Here's hoping!

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The roof goes up.
08/28/2013

The roof goes up.

The big-kids area takes shape.
08/27/2013

The big-kids area takes shape.

Address

5445 S Drexel Avenue
Chicago, IL
60615

Telephone

+13127472703

Website

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