The Trials of Henry Flipper, First Black Graduate of West Point

The Trials of Henry Flipper, First Black Graduate of West Point PDF

Author: Don Cusic

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-10-16

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0786480424

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Born in 1856 in Thomasville, Georgia, Henry Ossian Flipper was nine at the end of the Civil War. His parents, part of a privileged upper class of slaves, were allowed to operate an independent business under the protection of their owner. This placed Henry in an excellent position to take advantage of new educational opportunities opening up to African Americans and he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877. Flipper served at Fort Sill in what is now Oklahoma; took part in the Indian Wars; and served at Fort Davis in Texas, where a court-martial relating to missing funds ended his Army career with a dishonorable discharge. He later was an assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the early 1920s Harding administration, and died in 1940. Investigations into the circumstances of Flipper’s court-martial resulted in an upgrade to honorable discharge in 1976 and a posthumous pardon from President Clinton in 1999. Passages from Flipper’s 1878 autobiography and excerpts from contemporary military reports and newspaper articles contribute firsthand observations to this biography of West Point’s first black graduate.

Henry Ossian Flipper

Henry Ossian Flipper PDF

Author: Jane Eppinga

Publisher: Wild Horse Press

Published: 2015-08-01

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 9781681790060

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In 1878 Henry Ossian Flipper seemed destined for a long military career. Four years later, he was on trial at Fort Davis, Texas, for embezzlement of government funds and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. Found "not guilty" of the more serious charges of embezzlement, the nation's first black officer was court-martialed on the specious conduct charges. Thoroughly "humiliated, discouraged, and heartbroken," Flipper would soon embark upon a career which in time would bring him more honor and fame than if he had remained in the military. One hundred years later, his name was cleared and the 1882 records of the black soldier were changed to reflect an honorable discharge. The remarkable story of Henry Ossian Flipper, a young man born to slavery on the eve of the Civil War, and his struggle for recognition has left its mark on our nation's history. Through extensive research of military documents, court records, appeals, and from Flipper's personal journals and published papers, "Henry Ossian Flipper: West Point's First Black Graduate" captures the sum and substance of a nation tom apart by political ambitions and extreme prejudices and reveals the uncertainty of acceptance and intolerance of blacks in America following Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. A long-time resident of Arizona, historian and author Jane Eppinga is a member of Western Writers of America, Southern Arizona Authors, and the National Federation of Press Women and serves on the board of directors of Arizona Press Women. She received the 1995 C. L Sonnichsen Award for Best Paper entitled "Henry O. Flipper in the Court of Private Land Claims" published in the "Journal of Arizona History." Her articles have also appeared in "Wild West" and "Persimmon Hill."

The Colored Cadet at West Point

The Colored Cadet at West Point PDF

Author: Henry Ossian Flipper

Publisher: e-artnow

Published: 2019-07-19

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13:

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"The following pages were written by request. They claim to give an accurate and impartial narrative of my four years' life while a cadet at West Point, as well as a general idea of the institution there. They are almost an exact transcription of notes taken at various times during those four years."

Henry Ossian Flipper

Henry Ossian Flipper PDF

Author: Jane Eppinga

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13:

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In 1878 Henry Ossian Flipper appeared destined for a long military career. Four years later, he was courtmartialed at Fort Davis, Texas for embezzlement of government funds and dismissed from the Army. One hundred years later, his name was cleared and the 1882 records of the court martial of the black soldier were changed to reflect an honorable discharge. Flipper's life, marked by peaks of spectacular success and high adventure, was often blemished by failure and rejection. Born to slavery on the eve of the Civil War, his remarkable life story has left its mark on our nation's history.

Black Frontiersman

Black Frontiersman PDF

Author: Henry Ossian Flipper

Publisher: TCU Press

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13:

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Senator Albert Bacon Fall, and his later recollections on race and politics in the 1930s.

The Fall of a Black Army Officer

The Fall of a Black Army Officer PDF

Author: Charles M. Robinson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2014-10-22

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0806186283

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Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper was a former slave who rose to become the first African American graduate of West Point. While serving as commissary officer at Fort Davis, Texas, in 1881, he was charged with embezzlement and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. A court-martial board acquitted Flipper of the embezzlement charge but convicted him of conduct unbecoming. He was then dismissed from the service of the United States. The Flipper case became known as something of an American Dreyfus Affair, emblematic of racism in the frontier army. Because of Flipper’s efforts to clear his name, many assumed that he had been railroaded because he was black. In The Fall of a Black Army Officer, Charles M. Robinson III challenges that assumption. In this complete revision of his earlier work, The Court-Martial of Lieutenant Henry Flipper, Robinson finds that Flipper was the author of his own problems. The taint of racism on the Flipper affair became so widely accepted that in 1999 President Bill Clinton issued a posthumous pardon for Flipper. The Fall of a Black Army Officer boldly moves the arguments regarding racism--in both Lt. Flipper’s case and the frontier army in general--beyond political correctness. Solidly grounded in archival research, it is a thorough and provocative reassessment of the Flipper affair, at last revealing the truth.

Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment

Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment PDF

Author: Brian G. Shellum

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2010-02-01

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0803268033

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An unheralded military hero, Charles Young (1864–1922) was the third black graduate of West Point, the first African American national park superintendent, the first black U.S. military attaché, the first African American officer to command a Regular Army regiment, and the highest-ranking black officer in the Regular Army until his death. Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment tells the story of the man who—willingly or not—served as a standard-bearer for his race in the officer corps for nearly thirty years, and who, if not for racial prejudice, would have become the first African American general. Brian G. Shellum describes how, during his remarkable army career, Young was shuffled among the few assignments deemed suitable for a black officer in a white man’s army—the Buffalo Soldier regiments, an African American college, and diplomatic posts in black republics such as Liberia. Nonetheless, he used his experience to establish himself as an exceptional cavalry officer. He was a colonel on the eve of the United States’ entry into World War I, when serious medical problems and racial intolerance denied him command and ended his career. Shellum’s book seeks to restore a hero to the ranks of military history; at the same time, it informs our understanding of the role of race in the history of the American military.

Forgotten African American Firsts

Forgotten African American Firsts PDF

Author: Hans Ostrom

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2023-03-16

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1440875367

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This book introduces students to African-American innovators and their contributions to art, entertainment, sports, politics, religion, business, and popular culture. While the achievements of such individuals as Barack Obama, Toni Morrison, and Thurgood Marshall are well known, many accomplished African Americans have been largely forgotten or deliberately erased from the historical record in America. This volume introduces students to those African Americans whose successes in entertainment, business, sports, politics, and other fields remain poorly understood. Dr. Charles Drew, whose pioneering research on blood transfusions saved thousands of lives during World War II; Mae Jemison, an engineer who in 1992 became the first African American woman to travel in outer space; and Ethel Waters, the first African American to star in her own television show, are among those chronicled in Forgotten African American Firsts. With nearly 150 entries across 17 categories, this book has been carefully curated to showcase the inspiring stories of African Americans whose hard work, courage, and talent have led the course of history in the United States and around the world.

Buffalo Soldiers in the West

Buffalo Soldiers in the West PDF

Author: Bruce A. Glasrud

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1603444491

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In the decades following the Civil War, scores of African Americans served in the U.S. Army in the West. The Plains Indians dubbed them buffalo soldiers, and their record in the infantry and cavalry, a record full of dignity and pride, provides one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of the era. This anthology focuses on the careers and accomplishments of black soldiers, the lives they developed for themselves, their relationships to their officers (most of whom were white), their specialized roles (such as that of the Black Seminoles), and the discrimination they faced from the very whites they were trying to protect. In short, this volume offers important insights into the social, cultural, and communal lives of the buffalo soldiers. The selections are written by prominent scholars who have delved into the history of black soldiers in the West. Previously published in scattered journals, the articles are gathered here for the first time in a single volume, providing a rich and accessible resource for students, scholars, and interested general readers. Additionally, the readings in this volume serve in some ways as commentaries on each other, offering in this collected format a cumulative mosaic that was only fragmentary before. Volume editors Glasrud and Searles provide introductions to the volume and to each of its four parts, surveying recent scholarship and offering an interpretive framework. The bibliography that closes the book will also commend itself as a valuable tool for further research.

Unwelcome Guests

Unwelcome Guests PDF

Author: Harold S. Wechsler

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2022-02-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1421441322

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A comprehensive history of the barriers faced by students from marginalized racial, ethnic, and religious groups to gain access to predominantly white colleges and universities—and how these students responded to these barriers. Affirmative action in college admission is one of the most contested initiatives in contemporary federal policy, from its beginnings in the 1960s through the 2014 lawsuit alleging that Harvard discriminates against Asian American applicants. Supporters point out that using race and ethnicity as a criterion for admission helps remediate some of the effects of racist practices on minorities, including restrictions on college admissions. Opponents insist that the practice violates civil rights laws that prohibit racial discrimination and that it reenacts the historic racial bias of colleges. In Unwelcome Guests, Harold S. Wechsler and Steven J. Diner argue that discrimination in college admissions has a long and troubling history in the United States. Institutions of higher learning have vigorously sought to shape their mission and the experiences of their undergraduate students by paying careful attention to race and religion in admissions decisions. Post–World War I institutions devised exclusionary mechanisms that disadvantaged African Americans and other minority students for much of the century. Wechsler and Diner explore how American colleges and universities sought to restrict enrollment of students they considered undesirable. How, they ask, did these practices change over time? And how did underrepresented students cope with this discrimination—and with the indifference, bare tolerance, or outright hostility of some of their professors and peers? Tracing the efforts of people from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and religious groups to attend mainstream colleges, Wechsler and Diner also look at how these students fared after graduation, paying particular attention to Black women and men. Unwelcome Guests illuminates a critically important aspect of the history of American colleges and universities but also addresses policy debates about affirmative action and racial/ethnic diversity in colleges today. This profound history of the limits on college access over decades of discrimination will help readers recognize and understand the central role of race in the history of American higher education.