Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- Born Thomasville, Georgia
- Henry O. Flipper took an early step toward racially integrating the armed services as the first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy in 1877. Flipper described his challenges at the Academy in this autobiography, which includes a portrait of him in his West Point cadet’s uniform. He later supervised surveying and construction projects in Oklahoma and Texas while serving with the all-Black 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, the original “Buffalo Soldiers.” In 1977, West Point created an annual award in his honor, for a graduate demonstrating “perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties.”
- Nacido en Thomasville, Georgia
- Henry O. Flipper dio un paso temprano hacia la integración racial de las fuerzas armadas como primer afroamericano graduado de la Academia Militar de EE.UU. en 1877. Sus retos en la Academia están descritos en su biografía, que incluye un retrato suyo con el uniforme de cadete de West Point. Luego supervisó proyectos de agrimensura y construcción en Oklahoma y Texas con el 10o Regimiento de Caballería, compuesto enteramente de afroamericanos: los originales “Soldados Búfalo”. En 1977, West Point creó un premio anual en su honor para el graduando que haya demostrado “perseverancia ante dificultades extraordinarias”.
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Homer Lee, 18 May 1856 - 25 Jan 1923
- Sitter
- Henry Ossian Flipper, 21 Mar 1856 - 26 Apr 1940
- Date
- 1878
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Stipple and line engraving
- Dimensions
- Image/Sheet: 13.8 × 8 cm (5 7/16 × 3 1/8")
- Book closed: 18.8 × 13.8 × 2.5 cm (7 3/8 × 5 7/16 × 1")
- Book open: 18.8 × 24.5 cm (7 3/8 × 9 5/8")
- Type
