December 7: Pearl Harbor Day

One of the most controversial items in my doctoral dissertation — "A Survey of the History of the Black People of Texas" — was a name forever associated with Pearl Harbor Day: Doris Miller. In 1995, Texas celebrated its sesquicentennial of statehood in 1845. Part of that observance was a series of public service TV spots on Texans in history; a TV spot was played about Doris Miller. The 5-minute program claimed that Miller had shot down 4 Japanese attack planes from the deck of the West Virginia. There was a firestorm of protest from WWII navy veterans because none of the kills were verified by witnesses. A few years later, an African-American WWII veteran from Dallas launched a campaign to have Doris Miller's valor posthumously recognized with the Congressional Medal of Honor; Miller received the Navy Cross in 1942. That sparked another wave of controversy about Doris Miller. I took grief from my dissertation committee for calling Miller the first African-American hero of WWII. However, consider the case of the "first hero of WWII": Captain Colin Kelly Jr., a B-17 "Flying Fortress" pilot. In the confusion of the early days of the Pacific war, Kelly was credited with sinking a Japanese battleship. Overnight he was a national hero. It later was determined that Kelly and his crew did not sink a battleship, but a light cruiser instead. Colin Kelly was recommended for the Medal of Honor by Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton, commander of the US Far East Air Forces, but the award he received posthumously was the Distinguished Service Cross, on the orders of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's headquarters. Confusion reigned after the Pearl Harbor attack in the cases of both Doris Miller and Colin Kelly Jr. Let them rest in peace. If this is (fair & balanced) historical revisionism, so be it.

[x Handbook of Texas Online]

MILLER, DORIS (1919-1943). Doris (Dorie) Miller, first African-American hero of World War II,^qv son of Connery and Henrietta Miller, was born in Willow Grove, Texas, on October 12, 1919. The third of four sons, Doris Miller was named by the midwife who assisted with his birth; she was positive before the birth that the baby would be a girl. After attending the Willow Grove school, Miller entered A. J. Moore High School in Waco. In addition to playing football, he supplemented the family income by working as a cook in a small restaurant in Waco during the Great Depression.^qv As his family's fortunes worsened, he considered joining the Civilian Conservation Corps^qv or the army but encountered obstacles to each of these plans.

Less than a month before his twentieth birthday, Miller enlisted in the United States Navy at its Dallas recruiting station. Following bootcamp training in Norfolk, Virginia, he was assigned to the USS West Virginia as a messman. On December 7, 1941, Mess Attendant Second Class Doris Miller was collecting soiled laundry just before 8:00 A.M. When the first bombs blasted his ship at anchor in Pearl Harbor, Miller went to the main deck, where he assisted in moving the mortally wounded captain. He then raced to an unattended deck gun and fired at the attacking planes until forced to abandon ship. It was Miller's first experience firing such a weapon because black sailors serving in the segregated steward's branch of the navy were not given the gunnery training received by white sailors. Although news stories have credited Miller with downing from two to five airplanes, these accounts have never been verified and are almost certainly apocryphal. Miller himself told Navy officials he thought he hit one of the planes. Navy officials conferred the Navy Cross upon Miller on May 27, 1942, in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor. Following a Christmas leave in 1942, when he saw his home and family in Waco for the last time, Miller reported to duty aboard the aircraft carrier Liscome Bay as a mess attendant, first class. During the battle of the Gilbert Islands, on November 24, 1943, his ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Pacific Ocean, and Miller perished. At that time, he had been promoted to cook, third class, and probably worked in the ship's galley. In addition to conferring upon him the Navy Cross, the navy honored Doris Miller by naming a dining hall, a barracks, and a destroyer escort for him. The USS Miller is the third naval ship to be named after a black navy man. In Waco a YMCA branch, a park, and a cemetery bear his name. In Houston, Texas, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, elementary schools have been named for him, as has a Veterans of Foreign Wars^qv chapter in Los Angeles. An auditorium on the campus of Huston-Tillotson College in Austin is dedicated to his memory. In Chicago the Doris Miller Foundation honors persons who make significant contributions to racial understanding.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Neil Sapper, "Aboard the Wrong Ship in the Right Books: Doris Miller and Historical Accuracy," East Texas Historical Journal 18 (1980). Texas Star, May 21, 1972.

Neil Sapper


The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.


(NOTE: "qv" stands for quod vide, "which see.")

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Copyright © The Texas State Historical Association, 2001

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