"Henry Ossian Flipper" (March 21,1856-May 3, 1940)

Was one of the original Buffalo Soldiers and the first African-American to graduate from the

United States Military Academy,or West Point.Henry was born in Thomasville Georgia,to Festus and Isabella Flipper.Festus a shoe maker,later bought the freedom of his wife and children, who were slaves.Henry was the oldest of five sons,all who became men of achievement:Joseph was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church;Carl became a college professor in Georgia;E.H. was a physician in Florida;and Festus Jr. was a wealthy and respected farmer and landowner in Georgia. Henry was the only one among them who earned recognition in history.He received his education from several schools founded by the American Missionary Association,including Atlanta University. In 1873, while at Atlanta University,he was selected to attend the United States Military Academy.Other African-Americans had attended West Point previously,but dropped out because of the isolation and abuse they experienced.After living through four years of ostracism himself, Henry became the first black to graduate from the academy in 1877.Fiftieth out of his class of 76,he received a commission as second lieutenant.Only two other blacks cadets graduated from West Point during the nineteenth-century,with nearly half a century passing before another African-American would graduate from this academy.In January of 1878 Henry was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment,one of the first all-black regular army regiments.He served first at fort still in Native American Territory (Oklahoma)  and then in Texas at Fort Elliott,Fort Concho,Fort Davis, and Fort Quitman.He was given the duties of surveying and supervising construction projects.He also experienced combat against Apache Native Americans led by Chief Victoria.The 10th Cavalry Regiment was one of four regular army regiments making up what became known as the Buffalo Soldiers,black men serving in Post-Civil War military regiments.While he was at Fort Davis,Henry became the focus of a controversial- court-martial proceeding.In August of 1881,Henry was arrested and tried on charges of failing to mail $3,700 in checks to the Army Chief Commissary.The checks were later found in his quarters,he was acquitted of this charge. He was convicted,of misconduct.President Chester Arthur confirmed his sentence,and Henry was dismissed from service on June 30, 1882.Returning to civilian life, Henry remained in the West,working over the next half century as a surveyor, civil and mining engineer,consultant and translator and interpreter of Spanish land grants.Because of his "fluent Spanish,his skill as an engineer,and his knowledge of the law." He worked with private land claims between 1892 and 1903, when he served as a special agent of the Department of Justice. In 1892 he published a book on Spanish laws,which helped bring about the return of sizeable amounts of land to their rightful owners and earned him the animosity of land grabbers. Henry also wrote other technical reports dealing with Mexican and Venezuelan laws.When the Spanish-American War started in 1898,Henry volunteered to serve militarily.Congress failed in efforts to restore him to his former rank.Bills were introduced to restore Henry to his former rank and to give him command of one the four newly-proposed black regiments.Both bills died in their committees,and no new African-American were recruited.Henry continued working for mining companies in the West.It was during this time that he befriended Albert B.Falls,who later became a  U.S. senator.Albert used Henry's reports on the Mexican political situation in his work concerning the impact of the Mexican Revolution on American economic interests,and he later brought Henry to Washington as a translator and Interior, and he was hired as his assistant.When Albert was found guilty in the infamous Teapot Dome Affair,Henry who was not implicated,left the government and went to work for an oil company in Venezuela from 1923 to 1930.Henry tried several times to vindicate himself officially fom the militarycharges that brought him disgrace.Insisted that he had not been guilty of any wrongdoing in 1882 and should never been dismissed from the Army,he blamed his dismissal on racial prejudice,specifically on jealously on the part of his white colleagues of his realtionship with a white woman.Henry fought until the 1920s to clear his name,but it was not until nearly a century after he left West Point that a careful review of military records revealed that he haf been framed by his fellow exonerated and granted an honorable dischaege.He was living in Atlanta with his brother Joseph,when he died of a heart attack.