Fort Leavenworth ? Henry O. Flipper stoically endured hate and harassment to become the first black graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, only to be drummed out of the Army after white officers accused him of embezzlement.

He didn’t see his name cleared in his lifetime, but the Army took another step in honoring his legacy Friday with the dedication of a bust of him at the Buffalo Soldier Monument at Fort Leavenworth.

Because of rain, the ceremony was moved inside and only photographs of the bust were shown, although family members later went to view the memorial.

Carla Flipper, his great grandniece, stroked the face of the bust, sheltered by a tent from the rain. A concrete pedestal chronicles his military and civilian careers.

“I’m very proud of him and admire him for all of his perseverance and the legacy that he left for us,” she said. “His work truly shows a man who was truly blessed and wanted to serve his country.”

She said his courage and strength came from his parents, an inspiration generations later.

“For me as a black officer, you had to have someone to look up to. We are direct recipients of his legacy,” said Maj. Michael Williams, a senior project officer at Fort Leavenworth. “Then to meet the family and reach back to the past, it’s like talking to him.”

Flipper was born into slavery in 1856 in Thomasville, Ga. After the Civil War, he was attending Atlanta University when he won appointment to West Point.

Lt. Gen. Franklin Hagenbeck, superintendent at West Point, as well as Joseph Flipper, a grandnephew of Henry Flipper, spoke during the 45-minute long ceremony.

Joseph Flipper said his great uncle spent his final days with his grandfather in Georgia, proud of his service to the end.

Hagenbeck noted that each year for the past quarter century a West Point graduate receives the Henry Flipper Award for demonstrating courage in overcoming challenges.

West Point historian Steve Grove said the academy reflected the nation, and not everyone was enthusiastic about blacks taking a place in the long gray line. He compared Flipper to baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson for his stoicism.

While he wasn’t the first black person to attend the academy, Flipper was the first black to endure all four years of the academy’s hardships and receive his commission.

“Besides having a strong academic background, someone of obvious academic talents, he was a very stoic individual,” Grove said. “He didn’t hit back. Flipper would just bear it.”

Grove said Flipper wrote in his autobiography that he “was above that kind of behavior.” Despite public ridicule and harassment from white cadets, Flipper was known to tutor whites in private.

Flipper was assigned after graduation to the 10th Cavalry Regiment. He served on the frontier from 1878 to 1880 at various Southwest posts, including Fort Sill, Okla. He was a scout, an engineer surveyor and construction supervisor, post adjutant, acting assistant and post quartermaster and commissary officer.

At Fort Davis, Texas, in 1881, Flipper’s career took a dire turn when his commander accused him of embezzling $3,792 from commissary funds.

He was court-martialed, acquitted of embezzlement but convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer, and subsequently was ordered out of the Army with a dishonorable discharge.

Flipper began a successful civilian career as an engineer and expert in Spanish and Mexican land law, including writing a book on them for the Department of Justice in 1895. He first petitioned Congress in 1898 to clear his name.

That plea was rebuked, but he continued to seek to clear his name until his death in 1940 in Georgia. His family and supporters continued the fight, leading to the Army’s decision in 1976 to commute his dismissal to a good conduct discharge. In 1999, President Clinton pardoned him.