*In honor of Juneteenth, this post highlights an ongoing project to annotate and republish Henry O. Flipper’s autobiography*
Celebrating freedom, Juneteenth is as much about new beginnings as it is about the end of chattel slavery in the United States. Emancipation marked a new beginning for the formerly enslaved, the nation, its people, and its institutions. Emancipation also marked a new beginning for the United States Army—one that ultimately inaugurated Black service in the U.S. Army officer corps. But as we celebrate that new beginning, we should take honest stock of just how contested and long interrupted it was.
Continuous Black service in the U.S. Army began during the Civil War when Major General David Hunter organized the 1st South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent in 1862. By war’s end, nearly 200,000 African Americans had served in the U.S. Army and Navy, providing approximately 10% of northern manpower in the Civil War. For the first time in American history, policymakers organized the postwar regular establishment to include four segregated regiments of Black soldiers—the famed Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry, 10th Cavalry, 24th Infantry, and 25th Infantry Regiments.
Black access to the officer corps was a far more controversial issue. Most white Americans remained unwilling to accept African Americans as their social equals, deserving of access to the same spaces and opportunities as white Americans. Military leadership was one such opportunity. Because any commissioned officer could be placed in a position of authority over any soldiers, many white Americans shuddered at the possibility that Black officers could exercise command over white troops.
Despite such controversies and misgivings, a small cadre of congressmen, strongly supported by President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration, nominated the first African Americans to the United States Military Academy. James Webster Smith became the first Black cadet admitted to West Point when he passed the entrance exam and joined the Corps of Cadets in June 1870. He endured a considerable amount of mental and physical abuse as white cadets actively strove to drive him away. But Smith persevered despite significant mental and physical abuse, often with tacit acquiescence of faculty and officers charged with integrating West Point. His courageous perseverance convinced white cadets to adopt a passive form of resistance instead. They “silenced” him, refusing to speak to Smith unless official duties compelled them to. Silencing had a significant psychological impact, further isolating an already isolated person in what was, in the late-19th century, an extremely isolated place. It also posed a more tangible threat. Most cadets relied on other cadets for help when they ran into academic trouble. Being silenced meant being denied that lifeline. Smith began to struggle, and ultimately failed out of West Point in 1874. Prompting white cadets to adopt a more passive form of resistance made it possible if still improbable for Black cadets to graduate and earn their commissions.1
Henry O. Flipper was the first to do so. Flipper arrived at West Point in 1873 and graduated in 1877, rooming with Smith in the 1873-1874 academic year and benefitting from his advice on how to survive what proved to be an excruciating ordeal that required exceptional amounts of courage and determination. Flipper left an account of his West Point experience in his 1878 autobiography The Colored Cadet at West Point, the most complete perspective of those at the tip of the spear of Reconstruction-era integration at West Point. It details Flipper’s courage and perseverance—similar to Smith’s—in the face of incredible adversity. It makes clear how much the practice of silencing tormented him, and the sad reality that he also endured some physical abuse, if somewhat milder than Smith had encountered.
At the same time, Flipper’s account is difficult for a modern reader to understand. It reflects its time. It is also self-censored: Flipper hints at abuse without stating it outright; he never identifies antagonists by name; and he goes out of his way to avoid criticism of West Point’s faculty and leadership. He was, after all, an optimist at heart and a late-19th-century man writing for a late-19th-century audience as a newly-commissioned lieutenant with visions of a full career ahead of him that he did not want to jeopardize.
To help modern readers better understand Flipper and his experiences, the West Point Press is considering publication of an annotated edition of Flipper’s autobiography. If accepted, the volume will be available in early 2025, open access and free to any interested readers. The annotated edition will provide readers essential context to understand Flipper’s narrative, as well as annotations throughout Flipper’s text to explain material unfamiliar to 21st-century readers, elaborate explicitly where Flipper makes points implicitly, and draw out explanations of material that Flipper elided over to avoid jeopardizing his own career.
Understanding is the best form of celebrating. Understanding allows us to be inspired by the sheer courage of James W. Smith, Henry O. Flipper, and other trailblazers in the Reconstruction-era attempt to integrate West Point. It also allows us to take stock of the leadership failures that allowed Smith’s and Flipper’s experiences to become such tormented ordeals; that caused more than a decade to pass between Flipper’s graduation in 1877 and those of West Point’s second and third Black graduates in 1887 (John Hanks Alexander) and 1889 (Charles Young); and that imposed nearly a half-century interval before Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became West Point’s fourth Black graduate in 1936. Through inspiration and honest reflection alike, we can strive to be better leaders and stewards of our Army.
Lt. Col. Rory McGovern, U.S. Army, is an academy professor at the United States Military Academy, where he directs the U.S. and military history programs. Previously a field artillery officer and Army strategist, he has served in the 1st Cavalry Division, 3rd Infantry Division, and 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command. He holds a B.A. in political science from Boston College, and a M.A. and Ph.D in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
For a detailed analysis of James W. Smith’s experiences at West Point, see Rory McGovern, Makonen Campbell, and Louisa Koebrich, “‘I Hope to Have Justice Done Me or I Can’t Get Along Here’: James Webster Smith and West Point,” Journal of Military History 87:4 (October 2023): 964-1003.