The Colored Cadet at West Point | Page 6

at West Point. This cadet is a
mulatto boy named Flipper. He is about twenty years old, a stoutish
fellow, weighing perhaps one hundred and fifty pounds, and a smart,
bright, intelligent boy. His father is a shoemaker, and gave him the
euphonious name of Henry Ossian Flipper.
"'Flipper has been at the great soldier factory of the nation for a year.

He was recommended there by our late Congressman from the Fifth
District, the Hon. J. C. Freeman. Flipper has made a right booming
student. In a class of ninety-nine he stood about the middle, and
triumphantly passed his examination, and has risen from the fourth to
the third class without difficulty.
"'The only two colored boys at the Academy were the famous Smith
and the Atlanta Flipper. It is thought that Smith at the last examination
failed. If so, Atlanta will have the distinguished honor of having the
sole African representative at West Point.
"'Flipper has had the privilege of eating at the same table with the poor
white trash; but Smith and Flipper bunked together in the same room
alone, without white companions.
"'It is an astonishing fact that, socially, the boys from the Northern and
Western States will have nothing to do with these colored brothers.
Flipper and Smith were socially ostracized. Not even the Massachusetts
boys will associate with them. Smith has been a little rebellious, and
attempted to thrust himself on the white boys; but the sensible Flipper
accepted the situation, and proudly refused to intrude himself on the
white boys.
"'The feeling of ostracism is so strong that a white boy who dared to
recognize a colored cadet would be himself ostracized by the other
white cubs, even of radical extraction.'
"We copy the above from the Atlanta Herald of last week, for the
purpose of remarking that among colored men we know of none more
honorable or more deserving than Flipper, the father of the colored
West Point student of that name. Flipper lived for many years in
Thomasville as the servant of Mr. E. G. Ponder--was the best
bootmaker we ever knew, and his character and deportment were ever
those of a sensible, unassuming, gentlemanly white man. Flipper
possessed the confidence and respect of his master and all who knew
him. His wife, the mother of young Flipper, was Isabella, a servant in
the family of Rev. R. H. Lucky, of Thomasville, and bore a character
equal to that of her husband. Young Flipper was baptized in his infancy

by the venerable Bishop Early. From these antecedents we should as
soon expect young Flipper to make his mark as any other colored youth
in the country."
(From the Louisville Ledger.)
"It is just possible that some of our readers may not know who Flipper
is. For their benefit we make haste to explain that Flipper is the solitary
colored cadet now at West Point. He is in the third class, and stands
forty-six in the class, which numbers eighty- five members. This is a
very fair standing, and Flipper's friends declare that he is getting along
finely in his studies, and that he is quite up to the standard of the
average West Point student. Nevertheless they intimate that he will
never graduate. Flipper, they say, may get as far as the first class, but
there he will be 'slaughtered.'
"A correspondent of the New York Times takes issue with this opinion.
He says there are many 'old heads' who believe Flipper will graduate
with honor, and he thinks so too. The grounds for his belief, as he gives
them, are that the officers are gentlemen, and so are the professors; that
they believe merit should be rewarded wherever found; and that they all
speak well of Flipper, who is a hard student, as his position in his class
proves. From this correspondent we learn that Flipper is from Georgia;
that he has a light, coffee-colored complexion, and that he 'minds his
business and does not intrude his company upon the other cadets,'
though why this should be put down in the list of his merits it is not
easy to understand, since, if he graduates, as this writer believes he will,
he will have the right to associate on terms of perfect equality with the
other cadets, and may in time come to command some of them. We are
afraid there is some little muddle of inconsistency in the brain of the
Times' correspondent.
"The Chicago Tribune seems to find it difficult to come to any
conclusion concerning Flipper's chances for graduating. It says: 'It is
freely asserted that Flipper will never be allowed to graduate; that the
prejudice of the regular army instructors against the colored race is
insurmountable, and that they will drive away from the Academy by
persecution of