At a time of tumult over race and diversity in the federal government and on our campuses, these columns are glad to learn that the United States Military Academy at West Point will be carrying on with the tradition of honoring its first Black graduate, Henry O. Flipper. He was the Army’s first Black commissioned officer. The annual banquet honoring Flipper is slated to be held on February 20, an academy press officer tells the Sun. 

That prospect might have been called into doubt as a result of President Trump’s directive ordering the end of all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the federal government. The White House, too, has “laid out a blueprint to eliminate all race-based and sex-based preference within the military and the Defense Department,” the Washington Post reports. It marks an executive order headlined “Restoring America’s Fighting Force.”