Biography
Flipper was born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia the eldest of five brothers. His mother, Isabelle Flipper, and his father, Festus Flipper, a shoemaker and carriage-trimmer, were owned by Ephraim G. Ponder, a wealthy slave dealer.
Flipper attended Atlanta University during Reconstruction. There, as a freshman, Representative James C. Freeman appointed him to attend West Point, where there were already four other black cadets. The small group had a difficult time at the academy, where they were rejected by white students. Nevertheless, Flipper persevered and in 1877 became the first of the group to graduate,earning a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army cavalry. He was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, one of the four all-black Buffalo Soldier regiments in the army, and became the first black officer to command regular troops in the U.S. Army. (Previously all-black regiments were led by white officers).
Read more about this topic: Henry Ossian Flipper
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