Henry Flipper Rose From Slavery to Become West Point’s First Black Graduate—and a Staunch Anti-New Dealer by Lawrence Reed

Very recommendable! An extraordinary American!

"... His parents taught Henry and his four younger brothers to lift themselves up and never let anybody else get them down. This emphasis on hard work and character from an early age worked in every case. One brother became a successful farmer; another, a college president and bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church; another, a college professor; and the fourth, a physician. To the Flipper family, what we call “the American Dream” was as real and personal as it gets. ...
What did this man of sterling character do to prompt a court-martial by the Army? In 1881, he was falsely accused of embezzling funds while a quartermaster at Fort Davis, Texas. He was acquitted of that offense but found guilty of “conduct unbecoming an officer” and dismissed. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1976, the Army’s Board for the Correction of Military Records overturned the second, racially motivated charge and in 1999, Flipper was granted a posthumous presidential pardon. ...
Henry Flipper loved America. He was a first-rate scholar of history. He knew America didn’t invent slavery. He understood that while some Americans enslaved his parents, other Americans helped free them. One—a white Georgia Republican congressman named J. C. Freeman—judged Henry on his character and abilities and secured his appointment to West Point. ...

these words from Henry Flipper’s pen in 1936:

No civilized people is so ignorant of their Constitution and functioning of their government as the American people, and this ignorance runs all the way from the college graduate to the most illiterate clodhopper. In our schools…we are taught everything except the language we imagine we speak and the Constitution of our country. ...

Of America’s 32nd president, Flipper wrote,

Roosevelt has led the people, the unthinking element, to believe the federal government would take care of them under all circumstances, guarantee them jobs or take care of them when no jobs were to be had, thus lowering their morale.

His perspective on the size and role of the federal government was perhaps best distilled in this passage from one of his letters:

You see, I believe in the States. They existed long before the Federal government, which they themselves made. We do not want a strong central government in this country. History has shown the numberless evils of such government."

"... Flipper was the seventh African American to enter West Point and, as a member of the Class of 1877, was the first to graduate and be commissioned as an Army officer. This was quite an accomplishment since from 1870 to 1898, twelve African Americans entered the Academy and only six stayed longer than one semester. ..."

"... Throughout his life, Flipper was a prolific author, writing about scientific topics, the history of the Southwest, and his own experiences. In The Colored Cadet at West Point (1878) he describes his experiences at the military academy. In the posthumous Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper (1963), he describes his life in Texas and Arizona after his discharge from the Army." (Source)

Henry Flipper Rose From Slavery to Become West Point’s First Black Graduate—and a Staunch Anti-New Dealer - Foundation for Economic Education Despite experiencing the bitter fruits of racism, he never gave up on America—or its Constitution.

The Legacy of Henry O. Flipper in the U.S. Army