June 15, 1877: The Class of 1877 graduates from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, 50 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. Among the newly-commissioned Second Lieutenants is the Academy's 1st black graduate.
Henry Ossian Flipper was born on March 21, 1856 in Thomasville, Georgia, and lived 9 years in slavery until the Confederacy was rightfully destroyed. He grew up to attend Atlanta University, where he and 4 other black students were appointed by Representatives James C. Freeman to attend the U.S. Military Academy. Flipper was the first of them to graduate.
He was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, an all-black unit whom Native tribes, due to their color, called "Buffalo Soldiers." He became the 1st black officer to command regular troops in the U.S. Army.
In 1880, he was appointed quartermaster of Fort Davis in west Texas. The following year, the new commanding officer, Colonel William R. Shafter, asked Flipper to keep the quartermaster's safe in his quarters. In July, upon counting the money in the safe, he discovered he was $2,000 short -- about $58,000 in 2022 money. He concluded that the likeliest reason was an attempt to sabotage his career, so he attempted to hide the discrepancy, which failed.
Many people agreed that it was a setup, and others soldiers and nearby civilians came up with the money to replace what was missing within 4 days. But the damage was done, and Shafter convened a court-martial on September 17, 1881. In December, he was found not guilty of embezzlement.
But, as would later be said of many criminal defendants, "It's not the crime that gets you, it's the cover-up." And so, he was found guilty "of conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman," and sentenced to be "dismissed from the service of the United States." Appeals went all the way to the desk of President Chester A. Arthur, but were denied. On June 30, 1882, Flipper was drummed out of the army with a dismissal, at the time the officer equivalent of a dishonorable discharge.
He became a civil engineer, wrote two acclaimed memoirs, retired to Atlanta, and died there on April 26, 1940, at the age of 84. He had been successful at everything he tried, except getting his conviction overturned. In 1976, descendants and supporters applied to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records on behalf of Flipper. The board, after stating it did not have the authority to overturn his court-martial conviction, concluded the conviction and punishment were "unduly harsh and unjust," and recommended that Flipper's dismissal be changed to a good conduct discharge, effective the date of his sentence being carried out, June 30, 1882. This was done.
This was not considered good enough, and in 1997, an appeal was filed with the Secretary of the Army. It made its way to President Bill Clinton, who formally pardoned Flipper on February 19, 1999. This done, the Academy acted as though his dishonor had never happened, and honored him as though it it hadn't. A bust of Flipper was unveiled on the Academy grounds, and an annual Henry O. Flipper Award has been granted to graduating cadets at the academy who exhibit "leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties."
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June 15, 1877 was a Friday. The only professional sports league in America at this point was baseball's National League, but no games were scheduled for this historic day.
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