A Black cadet at West Point was found unconscious in his room, tied to his own bed, with his ears slashed.
The academy's conclusion was that he had done it to himself.
Johnson Whittaker. 1880.
He was one of the first Black cadets ever admitted. He had been ostracised for three years — no roommate would share with him, no cadet would speak to him.
On the morning of April 6, 1880, he was found beaten, bound, and bleeding on the floor of his quarters.
West Point convened an inquiry and decided he had staged the whole thing to win sympathy. Then it court-martialled HIM.
He was convicted. The conviction was eventually thrown out by the President on legal grounds — and the army discharged him anyway on a technicality about an exam.
He became a teacher and a lawyer and never talked about it much.
In 1995 — one hundred and fifteen years later — the United States finally issued him a commission as a second lieutenant.