| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
1 online resource. |
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text file |
| Series |
Williams-Ford Texas A & M University military history series ; number 158
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Williams-Ford Texas A&M University military history series ; number 158.
|
| Contents |
"Seagoing Bellhops, Chambermaids and Dishwashers": Black Sailors in a White Navy -- "Going Nowhere": Depression-Era McLennan County -- "God's Strength and Mother's Blessing": The Attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941 -- "A Simple Act of Justice": The Navy Cross -- "An Everlasting Inspiration": Jim Crow in Retreat -- "Tell All My Friends Not to Shed Any Tears for Me": To Tarawa and Beyond -- "They Appreciate What I Did": The Doris Miller Legacy. |
| Summary |
On the morning of December 7, 1941, after serving breakfast and turning his attention to laundry services aboard the USS West Virginia, Ship?s Cook Third Class Doris "Dorie" Miller heard the alarm calling sailors to battle stations. The first of several torpedoes dropped from Japanese aircraft had struck the American battleship. Miller hastily made his way to a central point and was soon called to the bridge by Lt. Com. Doir C. Johnson to assist the mortally wounded ship?s captain, Mervyn Bennion. Miller then joined two others in loading and firing an unmanned anti-aircraft machine gun?a weapon that, as an African American in a segregated military, Miller had not been trained to operate. But he did, firing the weapon on attacking Japanese aircraft until the .50-caliber gun ran out of ammunition. For these actions, Miller was later awarded the Navy Cross, the third-highest naval award for combat gallantry. Historians Thomas W. Cutrer and T. Michael Parrish have not only painstakingly reconstructed Miller?s inspiring actions on December 7. They also offer for the first time a full biography of Miller placed in the larger context of African American service in the United States military and the beginnings of the civil rights movement. Like so many sailors and soldiers in World War II, Doris Miller?s life was cut short. Just two years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Miller was aboard the USS Liscome Bay when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine. But the name?and symbolic image?of Dorie Miller lived on. As Cutrer and Parrish conclude, "Dorie Miller?s actions at Pearl Harbor, and the legend that they engendered, were directly responsible for helping to roll back the navy?s then-to-fore unrelenting policy of racial segregation and prejudice, and, in the chain of events, helped to launch the civil rights movement of the 1960s that brought an end to the worst of America?s racial intolerance." |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Miller, Doris, 1919-1943.
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Miller, Doris, 1919-1943. |
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United States. Navy -- African Americans -- Biography.
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United States. Navy. |
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African Americans. |
| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
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| Subject |
Miller, Doris, 1919-1943. |
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États-Unis. Navy -- Noirs américains -- Biographies. |
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Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941 -- Biography.
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World War, 1939-1945 -- African Americans.
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World War (1939-1945) |
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Civil rights movements -- United States.
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United States. |
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History / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX) |
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History / Military / Veterans. |
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Civil rights movements. |
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History / Military / World War Ii. |
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Armed Forces -- African Americans. |
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Hawaii. |
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Attack on Pearl Harbor (Hawaii : 1941) |
| Chronological Term |
1939-1945 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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Biographies.
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| Added Author |
Parrish, T. Michael, author.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Cutrer, Thomas W. Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, and the birth of the civil rights movement. First edition. College Station : Texas A & M University Press, [2018] 9781623496029 (DLC) 2017025541 |
| ISBN |
1623496039 (ebook) |
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9781623496036 (electronic book) |
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9781623496029 |
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