1st Black to Graduate from West Point

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2004

Henry Ossian Flipper (1856-1940) born a slave in Georgia, Henry Flipper, in 1873, was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and in 1877 he became the first African-American to graduate from the institution. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to the 10th Cavalry “Buffalo Soldiers.” From 1878 until 1880 Lt. Flipper served on frontier duty in various installations in the southwest, including Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. In 1881 Lt. Flipper’s commanding officer accused him of ‘embezzling funds and of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.’ As a result of these charges, he was court-martialed. He was acquitted of the embezzlement charge but was found guilty, by general court martial, of conduct unbecoming an officer. On June 30, 1882, he was dismissed from the Army as required by his conviction. As a civilian, Henry Flipper went on to distinguish himself in a variety of governmental and private roles. Including serving as surveyor, civil and military engineer, author, translator, special agent of the Justice Department, special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior with the Alaskan Engineering Commission, aide to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, as well as an authority on Mexican land and mining law. Flipper maintained his innocence until his death in 1940. In 1976 descendants applied to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records on behalf of Lt. Flipper. Though the board did not have the authority to overturn his court-martial, did recommend that he be given an honorable discharge. On February 19, 1999, President William Jefferson Clinton pardoned Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper and recognized an error and acknowledged the lifetime accomplishments of this American soldier.

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