First Black Officer Drummed Out Of Army

Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point and the first black officer in the United States Army, was stripped of his commissary responsibilities at Fort Davis on Aug. 8, 1881.

Born into slavery four years before the Civil War, Flipper broke several historic color barriers. The first representative of his race to gain entrance to the U.S. Military Academy, he also was the first to graduate and to receive a commission as a second lieutenant.

Assigned to the 10th Cavalry at Fort Sill, Flipper found the enlisted personnel were all black while he was the only non-white officer. Although resigned to a hostile reception, he was pleasantly surprised by his treatment.

“From the moment I reached Sill, I haven