Henry O. Flipper

1,500 S/N 25-3/4" X 25--3/4" - $130

Artist Proof $180

A brief description of Henry O. Flipper follows the pictured print.

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."