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Conversations in Management

Henry Ossian Flipper

The kind of treatment we are to receive at the hands of others depends entirely upon ourselves.

At six feet, two inches tall, Henry Flipper towered over the other cadets at West Point. When he graduated on June 14, 1877—the first African American ever to do so—he shared common characteristics of physical stamina, intellectual acuity and perseverance with the other cadets. But when it came to self-awareness, character and courage, he easily surpassed them all. His commissioning as a Second Lieutenant on that day was all the more remarkable because he had spent the first nine of his twenty-one years as a slave.

Much of Flipper’s success can rightly be attributed to his father. A skilled boot-maker and entrepreneur, the elder Flipper managed to accumulate some personal wealth and found ways of securing his son’s education from an early age despite his enslavement. Shortly after General Sherman’s March through Georgia (and two years after Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation), Flipper moved his family to the now nearly deserted Atlanta, and opened a boot shop on Decatur Street. The shop’s immediate success permitted Henry Flipper the luxury of a full-time education. It was during his freshman year at Atlanta University that he secured an appointment to West Point and headed north with some degree of trepidation.

Flipper’s worst fears about prejudice at the Academy were never realized. He enjoyed the support of the faculty and was generally treated with the respect accorded to his cadet rank. He was, however, socially ostracized and was cut off from the kind of camaraderie that characterized cadet life. From this he learned an important lesson about human nature. He observed that, “those of us who lived on the same floor of the barracks visited each other, borrowed books, heard each other recite when preparing for examination, and were really on most intimate terms… knew not what prejudice was.” Flipper considered this man’s natural condition. But he saw that a “rougher” element was invariably able to intimidate the others and, “these once friends discovered that they were prejudiced,” after all. Amazingly, Flipper was never demoralized or embittered by this treatment. Instead he established a personal principle that when confronted with some insult or offense, he, “endeavored to find some excuse, some reason for it, which was not founded on prejudice or on baseness of character…” He often found such excuses and was, “disposed not only to overlook the offence, but to forgive and forget it.” In general, he noted, “I simply do as the Romans do. If they are friendly, so am I; if they scorn me, I do not obtrude myself upon them; if they are indifferent, I am indifferent too.” Importantly, Flipper was committed to never returning measure for measure. As he gained seniority and commanded other cadets, he was a model of gentlemanly conduct and baffled the rough element by refusing to engage in retribution for his poor treatment at their hands.

Flipper understood something that many of us never grasp. He knew that it was better to control a bad situation than to surrender to it. He didn’t let others define him and he didn’t compromise his good character when confronted by people of low character. He tried to understand what motivated people and responded charitably to human weakness. Flipper experienced both trials and triumphs after leaving West Point but he would never abandon the principles that he developed in that place. In his indomitable spirit, depth of character and unwavering courage we can all find a blueprint for living. And through his example we can see that all things are possible.

—Ebert