Flipper, Henry Ossian (1856–1940)

US soldier and engineer. He became West Point's first black American graduate. Dismissed from the army in 1882 on trumped-up charges, he campaigned the rest of his life for reinstatement. He pursued a long and successful civilian career as an engineer.

Born in Thomasville, Georgia, the son of slave parents, he endured four years of harassment at West Point before graduating in 1877. The army granted him an honourable discharge dated June 30, 1882 – 36 years after his death.