19th Century Integration
From 1870 to 1889, at least 26 young Black men received appointments to attend the United States Military Academy. Twelve of them passed the requisite medical and academic examinations to be admitted as cadets. Among these, only three graduated: Henry Ossian Flipper (1877), John Hanks Alexander (1887), and Charles Young (1889).
Beyond the most exceptional cases among them, the experiences of the 12 admitted Black cadets have been understudied. They suffered from physical and psychological abuse from other cadets, and from repeated failures of officers and faculty to intervene on their behalf. “Silencing” was a special form of torture in which the Corps denied social interaction of any kind to targeted cadets—including all Black cadets—in the hopes they would resign under the mental strain or fail classes due to their inability to study with peers. Isolated, abused, and under enormous pressure, many in this first group of Black cadets saw no viable path to commissioning as officers. With disappointingly few exceptions, officers and faculty serving at West Point quietly reinforced obstacles that prevented most Black cadets from graduating and commissioning.
Intolerance, exclusion, and obstructionism therefore featured prominently at West Point in the late-19th century. But Flipper, Alexander, and Young persisted and earned their commissions under the most trying circumstances. By doing so, they established a new foundation of hope and determination for future generations of West Pointers to build upon.
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PICTURE: COURT-MARTIAL OF JAMES WEBSTER SMITH, THE COLORED CADET
As West Point’s first known admitted Black cadet, James Webster Smith faced insurmountable isolation, abuse, and opposition until he was dismissed for academic deficiencies in 1874. Under “close arrest” for various allegations for nearly all of his first year at the Academy, Smith is pictured here defending himself during his second court-martial in January 1871. Smith’s persistence and determination to remain at the Academy despite the isolation and abuse he faced forced the Corps of Cadets to adopt more passive forms of resistance toward others following in his footsteps, which ultimately allowed Henry O. Flipper, John H. Alexander, and Charles Young to become West Point’s first three Black graduates in 1877, 1884, and 1889, respectively.
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1880 U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY SUPERINTENDENT ANNUAL REPORT
In this seven-page report, Major General Schofield devotes nearly five pages to defending his actions and decisions in charging Cadet Johnson C. Whittaker—a Black cadet who was brutally assaulted in April 1880—with fraudulently staging his own assault. Schofield’s explanation reveals deep prejudice and a personal conviction that African Americans were unfit for admission to the Academy at that time. He also makes clear that his beliefs materially affected his impressions of individual Black cadets and his decisions related to their lives and futures at the Academy.
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STATEMENT SHOWING THE NUMBER OF COLORED PERSONS APPOINTED CANDIDATES FOR ADMISSION TO THE U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY THROUGH 1886
This statement was compiled in October 1886 in response to a U.S. War Department request for records of the number of Black cadets appointed for admission at the U.S. Military Academy. It reveals a fluid and uncertain definition of race at the time. Note the question marks beside William Achilles Hare’s and Henry Wilson Holloway’s names, indicating some uncertainty on the part of Academy officials about whether or not they were Black (they were). Also note the faint line at the bottom of the document that introduces another individual characterized as “not positively known to be of colored descent; or not enough known by general appearance to be of colored extraction” (he was not).
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PHOTOGRAPHS OF LOUIS BENTZ AND HIS BUGLE
This bugle belonged to Louis Bentz, who served as the bugler at West Point for 32 years. In his memoir, Henry O. Flipper placed Bentz at the top of a small handful of people who were compassionate enough to ignore the practice of “silencing” and converse with Black cadets.
Bentz’s bugle would have been present at those conversations and likely became an object symbolizing hope and humanity for Black cadets admitted prior to Bentz’s retirement in 1874.
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THE COLORED CADET AT WEST POINT BY HENRY OSSIAN FLIPPER
This edition of The Colored Cadet at West Point, printed by Arno Press in 1878, is a memoir of Henry O. Flipper’s appointment to and experiences at West Point from 1873-1877. Among its most poignant passages are several that detail Flipper’s experiences and opinions of the practice of “silencing” Black cadets, in which the Corps of Cadets refused to associate or speak to Black cadets unless official duties compelled them to.
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PHOTOGRAPH TITLED: VIEWS AT WEST POINT:HUDSON RIVER SCENERY
Taken in the summer of 1874 or 1875, this photograph includes then-Cadet Henry O. Flipper in the rear rank, closest to the camera. Flipper lived a generally isolated and solitary existence at West Point, as this photograph suggests. White cadets refused to associate with him unless official duties compelled them to, and all other Black cadets admitted while Flipper attended the Academy were dismissed after failing either the January or June academic examinations in their first year at the Academy.
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JAMES FORNANCE LETTER TO BROTHER
On July 17th, 1870, Cadet James Fornance wrote a letter to his brother referring to James Webster Smith with a racial slur and stating that Smith received special treatment during a court martial. The disgust and contempt for Smith expressed by Fornance in this letter were all too common sentiments throughout the Corps of Cadets.
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1871 HOP CARD
Each Saturday evening and on the eve of certain holidays throughout the academic year, hops (formal dances) were scheduled by the hop committee and held in the Cullum Ballroom or the South Gym. In Henry O. Flipper’s autobiography, The Colored Cadet, Flipper includes correspondence from James Webster Smith, the first Black cadet to be admitted to West Point. Smith recounts being a Yearling and inviting his brother, sister, and friends to visit him at West Point and attend a hop. To prevent Smith and his guests from attending, Cadet Corporal Tyler created an arbitrary order for Smith to tie down a side of a visitor’s tent before the Parade. After Smith complied, another cadet untied the tent, leaving Smith to be arrested and unable to attend the dance or to speak to his family and friends again before their visit was over.
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GEORGE W. GOETHALS LETTER TO FRIEND HANK
In 1877, Cadet George W. Goethals wrote to his friend Hank. In the letter, he referenced Cadet Johnson Chestnut Whittaker to applaud an incident in which a fellow cadet had assaulted Whittaker before a formation. He also reported that he and other cadets were rooting for Whittaker's failure in mathematics, so the Academic Board would dismiss him. This incident happened three years before the infamous assault on Whittaker in 1880 and reveals the petty violence that Black cadets were subject to on a somewhat routine basis in the 1870s and 1880s.
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"RUNNING THE GAUNTLET" PUCK MAGAZINE COVER
In the spring of 1880, Johnson C. Whittaker—a Black cadet—was found bound to his bed, unconscious, and bleeding from multiple wounds to his head, face, and hands. Despite racial prejudices prevalent in society at the time, public opinion turned decidedly against West Point when Academy leaders accused Whittaker of orchestrating the whole episode, even going so far as to cause his own injuries, to avoid the June academic examinations. This cartoon on the cover of the April 21, 1880, edition of Puck Magazine, a literary magazine published in both German and English language editions known for satire and biting political and social commentary, captures the public sentiment that Whittaker had been wronged which pushed President Chester Arthur to reject the court-martial’s guilty verdict and sentence of dismissal. Despite the president’s action, the U.S. Military Academy’s Academic Board declared Whittaker academically deficient and dismissed him anyway.
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THE WEST POINT OUTRAGE-THE COURT OF INQUIRY IN SESSION HARPER'S WEEKLY
Hand-colored wood engraving after drawing by W.A. Rogers of dramatization of the court-martial of Johnson C. Whittaker with insert of head and shoulders portrait of Whittaker. The illustration appeared in Harper’s Weekly, 1 May 1880, on page 285. West Point’s response to the Whittaker assault was a miscarriage of justice in which the victim became the accused.
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LETTER FROM CHARLES YOUNG TO DELAMERE SKERRETT
Charles Young became the third Black graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1889. In a letter written to fellow West Point classmate Delamere Skerrett, Charles Young reflects upon the sole “bright thing” to come from his harrowing experience at the Academy. That was the friendship and sympathy he received from eight cadets he lists as Bethel, Webster, McGlachlin, Harrison, Lambin, Langhorne, Barnum, and Bandholtz and two “disinterested” faculty members, Colonel W.B. Gordon and General George W. Goethals. Young’s list of allies is disappointingly short but is also considerably longer than James W. Smith could have produced as the first known admitted Black cadet, preceding Young by 15 years.
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GEORGE W. GOETHALS LETTER TO ADA M. YOUNG
At the end of his final year at West Point in 1889, Charles Young was found deficient in civil and military engineering. Then serving at West Point as an assistant professor of engineering, George W. Goethals’s “sympathy was aroused,” as he recalls in this later letter to Young’s widow, and he convinced the Academic Board to allow him to tutor Young over the summer and prior to a re-examination in August. Young passed the examination and graduated. This is an example of personal growth over time—contrast this sympathetic and helpful action by Goethals in 1889 with the attitudes he expressed in his letter included above to “Friend Hank” while still a cadet in 1877.
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HENRY O. FLIPPER BRONZE BUST
Sculptor Helene Massey-Hemmans created this bronze bust in 1977 of Henry O. Flipper, the first Black graduate of the United States Military Academy. It is among the West Point Museum's artifacts.
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