Did you know that the first African American to graduate from West Point was once a student at the historically Black university now known as Clark Atlanta University? His name was Henry O. Flipper, and his path from slavery to the United States Military Academy is one of the most remarkable stories in American history.
Henry Ossian Flipper was born enslaved on March 21, 1856, in Thomasville, Georgia. After the Civil War, he was educated in schools established for Black students by the American Missionary Association and went on to attend Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University, before he received an appointment to West Point in 1873.
At the academy, Flipper excelled in engineering, law, French, and Spanish. On June 14, 1877, he became the first African American to graduate from West Point. According to the National Park Service, when he received his diploma, the crowd of spectators gave him a round of applause.
Commissioned as a second lieutenant, Flipper was assigned to the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, one of the regiments of Buffalo Soldiers, and stationed at Fort Sill in Indian Territory. There he engineered a drainage system to combat malaria that became known as Flipper’s Ditch, a project later designated a National Historic Landmark. He went on to serve at Fort Concho and Fort Davis in Texas.
In 1881, Flipper was charged with embezzling public funds and conduct unbecoming an officer. He was acquitted of the embezzlement charge but convicted on the conduct charge, and on June 30, 1882, he was dishonorably discharged. Flipper spent the rest of his life maintaining his innocence. He built a distinguished career as an engineer and surveyor across the American Southwest, Mexico, and Alaska, and authored memoirs of his experiences. He died on April 26, 1940, in Atlanta…