Flippin, George A., 1868-1929

Dates

• Existence: 1868 - 1929

Biography

George Albert Flippin was born in Port Isabelle, Ohio on February 8, 1868 to Charles A. Flippin, a freed slave who fought in the Civil War and Mary, who was Caucasian. The Flippin family moved to York County then later to Lincoln, NE. He attended the University of Nebraska from 1891 to 1894.  He continued his education at the Medical Department of the State University of Illinois at Chicago, graduating from in 1900.



George Flippin married Georgia Smith in 1893. Georgia had been a piano student at the Nebraska Conservatory of Music in Lincoln prior to their marriage. They had two children; Dorothy May (Jeffers) and Robert Browning Flippin.  Later on in his life, he married Martina E. Larson, from Stromsburg, NE, who was Caucasian. This caused quite the stir among the residents. When a York, NE café owner refused to serve Flippin, he filed the state’s first civil rights lawsuit.



At the University of Nebraska, Flippin excelled in both academics and athletics. He won an oratorical contest sponsored by, and was president of, the Palladian Literary Society. He was the first black athlete at UN and played on the first Nebraska football team to play out of state. Flippin was only the fifth black athlete at a white university in the nation. He is considered one of the Cornhuskers’ great halfbacks because of his dedication and athletic prowess on the field. He was the first black player inducted into the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 1974. Besides football, Flippin played baseball for UN, wrestled, and established records with the track team in shot-put.



Flippin completed medical school in three years at University of Illinois. He interned for a year at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Afterwards he went to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he practiced medicine for six years. Dr. Flippin opened the first hospital in Stromsburg, NE in 1907, when he moved back to Nebraska. The hospital, at the time, was called the Flippin Hospital. His feats as a doctor are numerous. For instance, during a polio epidemic, Flippin is credited with saving more lives than any other doctor. To keep up with medical advances Flippin took graduate courses and traveled to hospitals around the world to do research.



In Stromsburg, Flippin served on the Stromsburg Board of Education. Another honor Flippin achieved was the coveted honor of a thirty-second degree Mason. He was also a well known breeder of the Barred Plymouth Rock chicken.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: