Henry O. Flipper

Flipper was the fifth Black cadet admitted to West Point and the first to graduate. Cadets often shunned him, and he had little contact with white classmates beyond duty. He finished fiftieth in a class of seventy-six on June 14, 1877, and told the story in The Colored Cadet at West Point in 1878. With the Tenth Cavalry he built a road from Gainesville to Fort Sill and fought in two battles at Eagle Springs, Texas, in the Victorio campaign of 1880.

What the plaque says

Henry O. Flipper Henry Ossian Flipper (1856-1940) was the first African-American graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877. Born into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, he came from a family of achievers; his brothers were an African Methodist Episcopal Bishop, a college professor and a farmer. Commissioned as Lieutenant in the 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, also known as the Buffalo Soldiers, Flipper was stationed at bases in western states and territories. At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he designed a drainage system, now a National Historic Landmark known as "Flipper's Ditch," that removed standing water, thus minimizing malaria outbreaks. Despite his many accomplishments, Flipper is most remembered as a victim of racism. In 1882, at Fort Davis, Texas, he was court-martialled on questionable charges. He was eventually acquitted of all charges save one: conduct unbecoming an officer. Dismissed from the army, Flipper went on to become a civil mining engineer, surveyor, translator, newspaper editor, historian and folklorist in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. For 10 years, he lived in El Paso, working for prominent mining companies. He was appointed Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior during the Harding administration. Flipper tried, but was unable, to clear his name before his death in 1940. In 1976, the U.S. Army granted Lt. Flipper an honorable discharge, and he received a full presidential pardon of all charges in 1999. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chamizal National Memorial — 0.9 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 1.8 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 9.8 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 10 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon — steps away
• John Wesley Hardin — 0.5 mi
• James H. White — 0.5 mi
• Memorial Park — 0.7 mi