Encouragement

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Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." (Matthew 13: 3-8, NKJV)


It was the late 60’s in America. The Great War had been over for five years. Civil rights rapidly became both a unifying and a divisive social, political and economic issue. Like seeds from the Lord, young black men began to be sown onto the Lord’s multi-flowered garden, America.

Like young white men of that time, they fell into four basic types. Some fell by the wayside, and achieved nothing substantial. Other seed fell on stony places, where they had not much opportunity to grow. They tried hard to achieve, but their roots were unable to penetrate the hardness of their environment. Exhausted by the effort, their lives withered and died. The third seed fell among thorns; murderous plants that choked their efforts to succeed. These potentially beautiful flowers were suppressed and destroyed by the brutality that flourished in that harsher soil. However, the fourth seed that fell on good ground, rooted in strength and tenderly cared for grew strong and productive.

This is the story of four young black men, sons of former slaves. Like the seeds in Christ’s parable, they were sown onto the partially cultivated soil of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in the early 1870’s. Like young white men of the time, they each had different education levels, age, character, family finances, spiritual values and determination. Like the white youth, they had to pass a standard entrance exam, be recommended by a state legislator, and have someone of influence encourage them every once in a while.

West Point Academy had been reluctantly approved by the weak federal congress in 1802. In 1870, it was still struggling to find its place in American Society. Americans did not trust any organized military as a result of experience with the British before and during the Revolutionary War. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founders were firmly convinced that States were responsible for defense of the new country. The State Militia, consisting of every able-bodied man who could provide and carry his own weapon, was the basis of American defense. An institution such as West Point was considered dangerous to national freedom because it might encourage the creation of a new aristocracy and re-establish royalty.

America, according to the founders and the religious theology of the early 18th century, was God’s Promised Land. The Atlantic Ocean was the Red Sea, King James and his successor were Pharaoh, the leading preachers were Moses, and George Washington was the new Joshua, taking Canaan Land for God’s people to live free under the Lord. The Old Testament from Genesis to Samuel contained God’s governmental structure of Judges and Prophets for a free people. The Lord would anoint military leaders only when there was a need for defense. Thomas Jefferson told George Washington that to establish a Military Academy to train federal officers would be unconstitutional. Consequently, the U.S. Army never got much beyond 13,000 men and officers to police 3,000,000 square miles of territory, until after the 1846 Mexican American war.

The West Point to which our four young men were appointed, had not more than 100 cadets ranging in age from 10 years old to early 20’s. Most were teenagers. They were not the disciplined, organized, military-minded group that we think of today. Some sneaked away to drink and party, they pulled tricks on each other. Older students hazed new ones. They evolved their own internal command, control and punishment structure, hidden from the men who superintended the evolving Academy.

In preparation for integrating black students into Academy life, the Corps had received orders from high political sources that severe discipline would result with possibility of dismissal for harassment of the new cadets. This convinced the Academy leaders and Cadets that it was best to leave black cadets completely alone. This meant that the black cadets had to room alone, and were not spoken to unless absolutely necessary, by other Cadets, mainly in the line of duty.

It was into this society, that four young black men, each with that “something special” that motivated political, religious and business leaders to recommend them for Cadet training, were sown with white seed, onto the partially cultivated soil of West Point Military Academy.

Michael O. Howard, the first black teenager to be recommended to West Point, was the son of a member of the Mississippi State Legislature. He was 18 years old in 1870, when another Mississippi congressman recommended him. Howard, in excellent health, unfortunately failed the entrance exam, and was rejected as a cadet.

James Webster Smith, the second young man to be recommended to the Point, was the son of a former slave who had become a prosperous carpenter. James had attended a Freedman’s Bureau school. After graduation in spring of 1870, a wealthy philanthropist, David Clark, selected him to attend newly established Howard University. Three weeks later he was nominated for a cadet vacancy. Smith had a problem with his eyesight that caused him to go blind at times. He also had a lung ailment. James had no problem passing the entrance tests, and was accepted as a Cadet. He wrote to Mr. Clark complaining about the treatment he received from other Cadets. He said he had been cursed and abused day and night. How much of that was normal new cadet hazing is not known. Older students gave all of the cadets a hard time, for the first year. He complained about the faculty, about the students, about the entrance exam being deliberately devised against blacks, he assaulted another cadet with a metal water dipper, did very little to win friends, and got favored treatment from leadership. His academic grades improved during the 2nd year, but began to drop the following year. He continued to fail in academics until he was dismissed without graduating. Smith lived alone, until Henry Flipper and another black Cadet, John Williams, arrived, and were assigned to room with him. In 1875, Williams also was dismissed because of Academic failings.

Johnson Chestnut Whittaker, the third cadet, was from Camden, South Carolina. In September 1876, at age 17, he filled the vacancy left by Smith, after several white candidates also appointed, had failed entrance tests.
He was a very shy, religious young man, keeping mostly to himself, reading his bible every night. He was an average student, in the bottom half of his class. Shortly after entering, he was struck in the face by a young man from Alabama for sneering at him, he alleged, while passing by him. Whittaker immediately reported the affair to the Cadet officer in charge, (not unlike any other Cadet would have done.) The Alabama cadet was court-martialled, found guilty, and suspended for 6-months. On April 6, 1880 Johnson Whittaker’s career was shattered when three or four masked men, thought to be Cadets, broke into his room, slashed his ear lobes with a razor, tore out and burned pages from his Bible, and left him bleeding and unconscious, tied to his bed. Following an investigation, it was ruled that he had faked the assault to get sympathy for doing poorly on an upcoming examination. No one was court-martialled, and Cadet Whittaker was convicted of faking the attack. President Chester Arthur overturned the conviction, but he was discharged from the Academy after the Secretary of War found out he had failed an oral examination on Philosophy.

Henry Ossian Flipper, the fourth youth, entered the Academy in June 1874. He was a graduate of the American Missionary Association School, and had completed four years at Atlanta University. Flipper had a solid academic background that enabled him to easily enter West Point. In his autobiography, he wrote that he had decided, before entering the Academy, that he would do everything possible to avoid antagonizing his fellow cadets. He lived alone for the greater part of his four years at West Point. But he seems to have thrived on the isolation, and performed excellently in his Academic studies. Henry Flipper graduated 50th in his West Point class of 76 Cadets, receiving his commission as a Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. When he went forward to receive his commission, his classmates and teachers cheered him.

In his autobiography, Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper presents the story of his life at West Point. His Christian beliefs and personal philosophy are evident throughout the book. He does not say much about the other black cadets who came and went during his time at the Point. But about himself, he says “ I entered the Academy at a time when, as one newspaper puts it, West Point was a ‘hotbed of disloyalty and snobbery, a useless and expensive appendage.’ I expected all sorts of ill treatment, and yet from the day I entered till the day I graduated I had not cause to utter so much as an angry word. I refused to obtrude myself upon the white cadets, and treated them all with uniform courtesy. I have been treated likewise. It simply depended on me what sort of treatment I should receive.”

Continued, he said, “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 so manifestly impossible, can engender strife alone between them. On the other hand, whatever brings them into closer relationships, 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.”( H.O. Flipper, 1856-1940: The colored Cadet at West Point, Autography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S.A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military Academy, Electronic Edition. Call Number U410.P1 F6 1878 (Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

Four young men from the flower of black youth in the 1870’s were sown onto the partly cultivated, yet still stony, hard and thorny soil of early West Point society. Like Christ’s parable of the seeds, one fell by the wayside (Michael Howard); another fell onto stony ground (James W. Smith); another fell among thorns (Johnson C. Whittaker); and one fell on good soil and thrived (Henry O. Flipper.). We may never know if those who failed might have succeeded if the field had been fully cleared, and the thorns and stones removed. Sometimes we have to do the best we can, in the field that the Lord has sown us. But, as Lieutenant Henry Flipper said, “ If I am to stand on any ground than the one white cadets stand upon, then I don’t want the cadetship. If I cannot endure prejudice and persecutions, even if they are offered, then I don’t deserve the cadetship, and much less the commission of an army officer.”

More than one hundred and twenty years later the President and Congress admitted that two of the men had been unfairly dismissed from the Academy.

On July 24, 1995, the Nation honored the memory and achievement of 1st Lieutenant Johnson Chestnut Whittaker. His proud family was awarded the bars of rank that he had earned but was denied. (The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, July 24, 1995 News Release. Remarks by the President at Johnson Chestnut Whittaker’s Commissioning.)Complete text may be found at internet site http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1995/7/24/2.text.1

On September 22, 1997, the Nation honored the memory and achievement of 1st Lieutenant James Webster Smith. Two years after his dismissal, at age 26, he died of tuberculosis in Orangeburg, leaving no family. (Remarks of Rep. John Spratt (D-SC_, The Posthumous Commissioning Ceremony for James Webster Smith, South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, South Carolina, September 22, 1997.),Complete text may be found at internet site http://www.house.gov/spratt/sph_08.htm
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“Forgive as soon as you are injured, and forget as soon as you forgive.” (Words hand written in his Bible by Johnson Chestnut Whittaker.)

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