But it is color, they say, color only, which
determines how the Negro must be treated. Color is his
misfortune, and his treatment must be his misfortune also.
Mistaken idea! and one of which we should speedily rid
ourselves. It may be color in some cases, but in the great
majority of instances it is mental and moral condition.
Little or no education, little moral refinement, and all
their repulsive consequences will never be accepted as
equals of education, intellectual or moral. Color is
absolutely nothing in the consideration of the question,
unless we mean by it not color of skin, but color of
character, and I fancy we can find considerable color there.
It has been said that my success at West Point would be a
grand victory in the way of equal rights, meaning, I
apprehend, social rights, social equality, inasmuch as all
have, under existing laws, equal political rights. Doubtless
there is much truth in the idea. If, however, we consider
the two races generally, we shall see there is no such
right, no such social right, for the very basis of such a
right, viz., a similarity of tastes, instincts, and of
mental and moral conditions, is wanting. The mental
similarity especially is wanting, and as that shapes and
refines the moral one, that too is wanting.
To illustrate by myself, without any pretensions to
selfishness. I have this right to social equality, for I and
those to whom I claim to be equal are similarly educated. We
have much in common, and this fact alone creates my right to
social and equal recognition.
"But the young gentlemen who boast of holding only official
intercourse with their comrade, should remember that no one
of them stands before the country in any different light
from him. . . . Amalgamated by the uniform course of studies
and the similarity of discipline, the separating fragments
at the end of the student life carry similar qualities into
the life before them, and step with almost remarkable social
equality into the world where they must find their level."
Philadelphia North American, July 7th, 1876.
If we apply this to the people as a unit, the similarity no
longer exists. The right, therefore, also ceases to exist.
The step claimed to have been made by my success is one due
to education, and not to my position or education at West
Point, rather than at some other place; so that it follows
if there be education, if the mental and moral condition of
the claimants to that right be a proper one, there will
necessarily be social equality, and under other
circumstances there can be no such equality.
"Remember, dear friend," says a correspondent, "that you
carry an unusual responsibility. The nation is interested in
what you do. If you win your diploma, your enemies lose and
your friends gain one very important point in the great
argument for equal rights. When you shall have demonstrated
that you have equal powers, then equal rights will come in
due time. The work which you have chosen, and from which you
cannot now flinch without dishonor, proves far more
important than either you or me (Faculty at A. U.) at first
conceived. Like all great things its achievement will
involve much of trial and hardship."
Alas! how true! What a trial it is to be socially
ostracized, to live in the very midst of life and yet be
lonely, to pass day after day without saying perhaps a
single word other than those used in the section room during
a recitation. How hard it is to live month after month
without even speaking to woman, without feeling or knowing
the refining influence of her presence! What a miserable
existence!
Oh! tis hard, this lonely living, to be
In the midst of life so solitary,
To sit all the long, long day through and gaze
In the dimness of gloom, all but amazed
At the emptiness of life, and wonder
What keeps sorrow and death asunder.
Tis the forced seclusion most galls the mind,
And sours all other joy which it may find.
Tis the sneer, tho half hid, is bitter still,
And wakes dormant anger to passion s will.
But oh! tis harder yet to bear them all
Unangered and unheedful of the thrall,
To list the jeer, the snarl, and epithet
All too base for knaves, and e en still forget
Such words were spoken, too manly to let
Such baseness move a nobler intellect.
But not the words nor even the dreader disdain
Move me to anger or resenting pain.
Tis the thought, the thought most disturbs my mind,
That I'm ostracized for no fault of mine,
Tis that ever recurring thought awakes
Mine anger
Such a life was mine, not indeed for four years, but for the
earlier part of my stay at the Academy.
But to return to our subject. There are two questions
involved in my case. One of them is, Can a Negro graduate at
West Point, or will one ever graduate there? And the second,
If one never graduate there, will it be because of his color
or prejudice?
My own success answers most conclusively the first question,
and changes the nature of the other. Was it, then, color or
actual deficiency that caused the dismissal of all former
colored cadets? I shall not venture to reply more than to
say my opinion is deducible from what I have said elsewhere
in my narrative.
However, my correspondent agrees with me that color is of no
consequence in considering the question of equality
socially. My friends, he says, gain an important point in
the argument for equal rights. It will be in this wise,
viz., that want of education, want of the proof of equality
of intellect, is the obstacle, and not color. And the only
way to get this proof is to get education, and not by "war
of races." Equal rights must be a consequence of this proof,
and not something existing before it. Equal rights will come
in due time, civil rights bill, war of races, or any thing
of that kind to the contrary not withstanding.
And moreover, I don t want equal rights, but identical
rights. The whites and blacks may have equal rights, and yet
be entirely independent, or estranged from each other. The
two races cannot live in the same country, under the same
laws as they now do, and yet be absolutely independent of
each other. There must, there should, and there will be a
mutual dependence, and any thing that tends to create
independence, while it is thus so manifestly impossible, can
engender strife alone between them. On the other hand,
whatever brings them into closer relationship, whatever
increases their knowledge and appreciation of fellowship and
its positive importance, must necessarily tend to remove all
prejudices, and all ill feelings, and bring the two races,
and indeed the world, nearer that degree of perfection to
which all things show us it is approaching. Therefore I want
identical rights, for equal rights may not be sufficient.
"It is for you, Henry, more than any one I know of, to
demonstrate to the world around us, in this part of it at
least (the North), the equality of intellect in the races.
You win by your uprightness and intelligence, and it cannot
be otherwise than that you will gain respect and
confidence."
Thus a lady correspondent (Miss M. E. H., Durham Centre,
Ct.) encourages, thus she keeps up the desire to graduate,
to demonstrate to the world "the equality of intellect in
the races," that not color but the want of this proof in
this semi barbarous people is the obstacle to their being
recognized as social equals. A tremendous task! Not so much
to prove such an equality for that had already been
abundantly demonstrated but rather to show the absurdity and
impracticability of prejudice on account of color; or, in
other words, that there is no such prejudice. It is
prejudice on account of non refinement and non education.
As to how far and how well I have discharged that duty, my
readers, and all others who may be in any manner interested
in me, must judge from my narrative and my career at West
Point. Assuring all that my endeavor has been to act as most
becomes a gentleman, and with Christian forbearance to
disregard all unfriendliness or prejudice, I leave this
subject, this general résumé of my treatment at the hands of
the cadets, and my own conduct, with the desire that it be
criticized impartially if deemed worthy of criticism at all.
"Reporter. Have you any more colored cadets?
"Captain H . Only one Henry O. Flipper, of Georgia. He is a
well built lad, a mulatto, and is bright, intelligent, and
studious.
"Reporter. Do the cadets dislike him as much as they did
Smith?
"Captain H . No, sir; I am told that he is more popular. I
have heard of no doubt but that he will get through all
right." New York Herald, July, 1874.
Henry Ossian Flipper, The Colored Cadet at West Point, 1878