June 14, 1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper Becomes First African American to Graduate from West Point

Henry Ossian Flipper was the first African-American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point. 

Cadet Henry O. Flipper USMA Class of 1877, via Wikipedia

Flipper was born into slavery in Georgia on March 21, 1856. After the end of the Civil War, Flipper attended the American Missionary Association, and subsequently enrolled at Atlanta University in 1873. 

During his freshman year at Atlanta University, Flipper was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was the fifth man of African-American descent accepted into West Point— an institution founded by Congress in 1802 for the purpose of educating and training young men in the theory and practice of military science. He was ostracized by fellow cadets (and no doubt ostracizing was the least of it) and graduated in 1877 fiftieth in a class of seventy-six.

After graduation Flipper was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to the 10th United States Cavalry and stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1878. He supervised the drainage of malarial ponds at Fort Sill by constructing a drainage system known as ‘Flipper’s Ditch.’ Today, ‘Flipper’s Ditch’ is regarded as a national historic landmark. Additionally, Flipper constructed a road from Fort Sill to Gainesville. 

Despite his accomplishments as a cadet, lieutenant, and engineer, he was dismissed from service on June 30, 1882. He had been accused of embezzling commissary funds, a charge he was finally cleared of only after his death.  [In 1997, a private law firm filed an application of pardon on Lieutenant Flipper’s behalf, and President Bill Clinton approved this application.]

Henry Flipper circa 1900 via Wikipedia

In spite of his dismissal, Flipper had a distinguished career as a surveyor, engineer, consultant, special agent of the Justice Department and aide to the Senate Committee in Foreign Relations, among other positions. Additionally, he published several works regarding his time as a Black cadet, lieutenant, and frontiersman. These works include “The Colored Cadet at West Point and Black Frontiersman: The Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper, First Black Graduate of West Point”. (You can read The Colored Cadet at West Point online here.)

In 1923, Flipper went to work in Venezuela as an engineer in the petroleum industry. He retired to Atlanta in 1931, and died on May 3, 1940.