a good conduct discharge. The Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) and the Adjutant General approved the board's findings, conclusions, and recommendations, and directed the Department of the Army to issue Flipper a Certificate of Honorable Discharge, dated June 30, 1882, in lieu of his dismissal on the same date. On October 21, 1997, a private law firm, Arnold & Porter, filed an application of pardon with the Secretary of the Army on Flipper's behalf. Seven months later, the application was forwarded by the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army (Manpower and Reserve Affairs) to the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice with a recommendation that the pardon be approved. Many pardon applications had been rejected in the past – as a matter of policy – because the intended recipients were deceased. However, President Bill Clinton pardoned Flipper on February 19, 1999. After his discharge was changed, a bust of Flipper was unveiled at West Point. Since then, an annual Henry O. Flipper Award has been granted to graduating cadets at the academy who exhibit "leadership, self-discipline, and perseverance in the face of unusual difficulties." Throughout his life, Flipper was a prolific author, writing about scientific topics, the history of the Southwest, and his own experiences. In The Colored Cadet at West Point (1878) he describes his experiences at the military academy. In the posthumous Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry O. Flipper (1963), he describes his life in Texas and Arizona after his discharge from the Army. See also James Webster Smith, first black cadet at West Point Johnson Chesnut Whittaker (1858–1931), one of the first black men to win an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point List of African-American firsts List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton Dreyfus affair References Further reading The Colored Cadet at West Point. Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S. A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military Academy. New York: Homer Lee & Co., 1878. Lieutenant Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S. Army 1856–1940 at the United States Army Center of Military History Additional information on famous presidential pardons . Henry O. Flipper Collection Finding Aid at the Archives Research Center of the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center. External links Lt. Flipper: The First Black Graduate of West Point Henry O. Flipper Dinner Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture