On Saturday March 21, 2015 at 11am there will be a Fence Dedication Ceremony at the Old Magnolia Cemetery in Thomasville GA. Henry O. Flipper is the First African American Graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Mayor Max Beverly will be leading the dedication. Ron Salter ’59 will be speaking. Kenneth Whitaker, President of the Thomasville GA Buffalo Soldiers 9th & 10 Calvary will be placing the Memorial Wreath. Click here for the Fence Dedication Program.
There is also an annual community service/Grave site maintenance coming up that was started by David Rich ’78 about 10 years ago. Since 2010 other members and friends of the Long Gray Line began to join him. If you would like to be apart of this email David.
"It started as a feeling years ago, probably 2004 or 2005. Describe it as a compulsion, a tug across time, the harder right instead of the easier wrong -- or describe it any other way you like. Hearing that Henry O. Flipper, West Point’s first black graduate, was buried in nearby Thomasville, the need to visit, to connect, and to make sure he understood somehow that he had mattered flicked my consciousness for several months until I finally jumped in the car one Saturday and took the short ride to that nearby Georgia town. More info on joining.
There, I found the cemetery to be in universal, gently neglected disrepair. After a short visit to pay respects and perform a solitary vigil for a brother in gray, it was time to drive home. I returned the following weekend, with hand tools, scrub brushes, and enough sweat equity to make a (very) small difference. But it was the beginning and, somehow, I felt that Flipper knew. Similar solo trips followed every six months for several years. Upon hearing about my efforts, other WPST members and friends began joining me for the effort in 2010. With additional backs and good ideas came more and faster progress. Now a single annual visit suffices to keep the site in very good repair." Read The Quill Article.