A Brief History of Henry O. Flipper
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Henry Ossian Flipper was an engineer and the first Black graduate of West
Point. He is the eldest of five sons. His parents, Festus and Isabella
Flipper were slaves born in Thomasville, Georgia, on March 21, 1856.
Although Flipper was the
fifth black accepted to West Point, he was the first to graduate. At West
Point he was often ostracized and had little social interaction with white
cadets beyond official activities. He graduated fiftieth in a class of
seventy-six on June 14, 1877, and accepted a commission as a second
lieutenant. Flipper described his successful struggle against ostracism
and prejudice in The Colored Cadet at West Point (1878). In January
1878 he was assigned to Company A of the Tenth United States Cavalry.
He lived out his life at the Atlanta home of
his brother, Joseph S. Flipper, a bishop of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. Henry Flipper died of a heart attack on May 3, 1940. In
December 1976, when a bust of him was unveiled at West Point, the
Department of the Army granted Flipper an honorable discharge, dated June
30, 1882. Two years later his remains were removed from Atlanta and
reentered at Thomasville, Georgia. An annual West Point award in honor of
Flipper is presented to the graduate who best exemplifies "the highest
qualities of leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of
unusual difficulties while a cadet."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bruce J. Dinges, "The
Court-Martial of Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper," American West,
January 1972.
Henry Ossian Flipper, The
Colored Cadet at West Point (New York: Lee, 1878; rpt., New York: Arno
Press and New York Times, 1969).
Theodore D. Harris, ed.,
Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper (El Paso:
Texas Western College Press, 1963). Steve Wilson, "A Black Lieutenant in
the Ranks," American History Illustrated, December 1983.
