Henry Ossian Flipper (1856-1940). The Autobiography of First Black U.S. Military Academy Graduate. Born a slave in GA, Flipper graduated from West Point in 1877.
Through hard work his father was able to purchase the family’s freedom. Flipper attended American Missionary Schools including Atlanta University, and was from there appointed to West Point. Facing steady racism, Flipper was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 10th Cavalry (Buffalo Soldiers), and served at four Texas postings and at Fort Sill, Indian Territory. While pursuing Apache Chief Victorio in 1879-80, he became the first African American to lead Buffalo Soldiers in battle. Unfortunately, his career ended by being framed for embezzlement of Army funds. Two white officers were found guilty but not cashiered. Flipper was acquitted in 1882, but never reinstated, and spent much of his life seeking to clear his name.
Despite racist setbacks, Flipper had been raised in a family that valued initiative; he trained as an engineer with brothers becoming AME bishop, college professor, farmer, and physician. Fluent in Spanish, he persevered as a civil mining engineer, surveyor, translator, newspaper editor, historian, and folklorist in the Southwest. Flipper served as Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior in Washington, DC, in 1921, and by 1923 as an engineer for the U.S. petroleum industry in Venezuela. Also, he is considered to be the first African American civil and mining engineer.
Fittingly, Lt. Flipper’s design to remove malarial standing water at Fort Sill, OK, popularly known as “Flipper’s Ditch,” became a national monument in 1977.