Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Poster Presentation
Dr. George A. Flippin: Life History of Early Civil Rights Pioneer
Randy Bird
Faculty Mentor: Jo-Ann Morgan
African American Studies
This research will examine the life of Dr. George A. Flippin (1868-1929), an
accomplished athlete, student, physician, and early civil rights activist. Dr. Flippin was
African American and spent his life in Nebraska, a state not known for their
progressiveness during those years before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and
1960s. Drawing upon sources including newspaper articles, museum records, and
published books, this project will look at Dr. Flippin’s life and career as an activist. He
was born in Ohio in 1868, and spent most of his life in Nebraska where he died in 1929.
His father had been a freed slave before emancipation. Dr. Flippin went to the
University of Nebraska as a student-athlete at a time when few African Americans were
being accepted into major universities. What accounted for his success in gaining
admittance? This research will review his life in an effort to understand his many
accomplishments, which culminated in a trailblazing lawsuit against a restaurant that
refused to serve him in York, Nebraska. What motivated this early civil rights activist,
and why do we not know more about him today?