Flipper, Henry Ossian (1856-1940), was the first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He became a second lieutenant in the 10th Cavalry regiment, one of the army’s two cavalry regiments with all African American enlisted men. The members of these regiments were also known as Buffalo Soldiers, a name given to them by American Indians as a sign of respect. Flipper’s promising military career ended in 1881 with a dishonorable discharge, which was later proved to be unjust and racially motivated. In 1976, long after Flipper’s death, the U.S. Army changed his discharge to honorable. In 1999, a pardon from President Bill Clinton completely cleared Flipper’s name. Flipper has long been widely recognized as a hero and admired for his ability to overcome hardship.
Flipper was born a slave in Thomasville, Georgia, on March 21, 1856. He learned to read and write from a fellow slave. He later attended a missionary school and also studied at Atlanta (now Clark Atlanta) University. In 1873, he was nominated to West Point. He was the sixth African American to enter the school but the first one to graduate. The African Americans were shunned by the white students, and all of them dropped out except Flipper.
After graduation, Flipper became the first black commissioned officer in the Regular Army. He was assigned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1880, Flipper was transferred to Fort Davis, Texas. He underwent a court martial there after funds entrusted to him were missing. He was found innocent of embezzlement but convicted for conduct unbecoming an officer. Long after Flipper’s death, historians found that some white officers who hated Flipper had plotted against him.
After his military career ended, Flipper went on to become a surveyor and mining engineer, an author, a newspaper editor, and in the early 1920’s an assistant to the U.S. secretary of the interior. When Flipper died in April or May 1940, he was buried in an unmarked grave in Atlanta. But in 1978, he was reburied with full military honors in Thomasville.
