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Texas Poll Tax Payment, Proposition 1 (1902)

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Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

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The Slocum Massacre occurred on July 29, 1910 in Slocum, Texas, an unincorporated community in southeast Anderson County. The city used to be home to a thriving African American community with several businesses and farms owned by black residents. Leading up to the massacre, a … Read MoreThe Slocum…

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1912 opening of the colored carnegie library in houston 

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1912 opening of the colored carnegie library in houston 

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Colored Carnegie Library, Houston, Texas (1913-1961) •

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The Colored Carnegie Library was a segregated branch of the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library (later the Houston Public Library). It opened in 1913 in Houston’s Fourth Ward and was one of the first public libraries for African-Americans west of the Mississippi River. It was … Read MoreColored Carn…

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1913 founding of the harlem hellfighters

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1913 founding of the harlem hellfighters

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Originally:

15th New York (Colored) Infantry Regiment

Harlem Hellfighters, nickname given to the 369th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army during World War I. The French government decorated the entire unit with the Croix de Guerre, its highest award for bravery, as well as 170 additional individual medals for valour. The 369th's battlefield prowess was almost overshadowed by its contribution to music, however, as the Hellfighters' regimental band was credited with bringing jazz to Europe.

Origins

The Hellfighters originated as the 15th New York (Colored) Infantry Regiment, a National Guard unit. Members of the African American community in New York City's Harlem district had long advocated for the creation of a homegrown military unit, but white politicians blocked several attempts at establishing such a body. On June 2, 1913, a bill authorizing an African American National Guard regiment finally passed the New York state legislature, and Gov. William Sulzer signed it into law. However, the 15th New York existed in name only until June 1916, when Gov. Charles Whitman appointed William Hayward, his former campaign manager, to serve as its commanding officer. Hayward had been a colonel in the Nebraska National Guard, and he, like most of the field-grade officers in the unit, was white.

Hayward proved to be an adept organizer, and he recognized the importance of incorporating African American soldiers into the unit's officer corps. An early addition was Charles Fillmore, a Spanish-American War veteran who had been instrumental in the campaign to establish an African American regiment. Fillmore was commissioned a captain and made a company commander. However, despite an endorsement from the New York Age, arguably the most influential African American newspaper of its era, the 15th New York had trouble meeting its recruiting targets. At full strength, the regiment would field several thousand men, but by the end of the summer of 1916, only a fraction of that number had enlisted.

The regiment's fortunes turned around with the enlistment of James Reese Europe in September 1916. Europe was a giant in the music scene of the early 20th century. He was a gifted multi-instrumentalist and composer as well as a tireless champion of African American music and musicians. Europe was also the bandleader for Vernon and Irene Castle, one of the most famous dance teams of the age.

Like many in New York City's African American community, Europe initially had been lukewarm to the notion of military service. The segregated armed forces offered limited opportunities for African American troops, and Europe was the toast of American high society. He had more than a dozen orchestras performing under his banner in 1916, and his creative energies were fueling the transformation of ragtime into jazz. When Europe told his friend and collaborator Noble Sissle that he had joined the 15th New York, Sissle countered that running Europe's musical empire had left neither of them with any time to devote to the army. Europe responded by telling Sissle that he would be joining the unit as well.

Europe was painfully aware of the prejudice that he and his musicians faced. They routinely played at the estates of the wealthiest families in the United States but never entered through the front door. Lynchings were commonplace, but U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson had not yet publicly denounced them. In the 15th, Europe saw an opportunity to create "a strong, powerful institution for the development of the Negro manhood of Harlem." Europe told Sissle that "our race will never amount to anything, politically or economically, in New York or anywhere else unless there are strong organizations of men who stand for something in the community." Sissle was receptive to this argument, and he enlisted the same day. Recruitment, however, continued to be hampered by the 15th's limited resources.

In an effort to boost his unit's profile, Hayward looked to the 8th Illinois, the only other African American regiment in the National Guard, for inspiration. The 8th Illinois had a concert band of national renown, and Hayward had Lieut. Jim Europe at the head of one of his machine gun companies. The solution seemed obvious, but Europe had a reputation to uphold. If he was going to establish a regimental band, he told Hayward that he would need the freedom to make it the finest in the army. Hayward secured $10,000 to fund the band, Europe was made bandleader, and Sissle was promoted to sergeant and made drum major. Europe spent months recruiting the country's finest musicians to his cause, and he personally led a trip to Puerto Rico to fill his reed section. While Europe was building his band, the United States entered World War I.

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Harlem Hellfighters | Members, Battles, & Summary

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Harlem Hellfighters, nickname given to the 369th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army during World War I. The French government decorated the entire unit with the Croix de Guerre, its highest award for bravery, as well as 170 additional individual medals for valor.

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the formation of the NAACP in texas 1915

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the formation of the NAACP in texas 1915

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In response to the Springfield riot, a group of black and white activists, Jews and gentiles, met in New York City to address the deteriorating status of African Americans. Among them were veterans of the Niagara Movement (a civil rights group), suffragists, social workers, labor reformers, philanthropists, socialists, anti-imperialists, educators, clergymen, and journalists-some with roots in abolitionism. In the abolitionist tradition, they proposed to fight the new color-caste system with a "new abolition movement"-the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP pledged "to promote equality of rights and eradicate caste or race prejudice among citizens of the United States; to advance the interest of colored citizens; to secure for them impartial suffrage; and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for their children, employment according to their ability, and complete equality before the law." The NAACP pursued this mission through a variety of tactics including legal action, lobbying, peaceful protest, and publicity.

Journalist Ray Stannard Baker

Ray Stannard Baker (1870-1946) was known as a leading muckraking journalist. From 1899 to1905, he was an associate editor of McClure's, and from 1906 to1915 he coedited American Magazine. As a muckraker, he reported on social and economic problems from a liberal perspective. After the Atlanta riot, he traveled throughout the South and North conducting interviews for Following the Color Line (1908), a groundbreaking book on race relations. Baker vacillated between the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and the NAACP. He joined the NAACP and attended meetings, but declined committee service. In his notebook he revealed that he "instinctively" agreed with Washington's "emphasis on duty and service" as a prerequisite for civil rights. Baker won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Woodrow Wilson in 1940. In this letter, NAACP founder William Wallings asks for Baker's support in convening a national conference on the Negro.

NAACP Leader Oswald Garrison Villard

Oswald Garrison Villard (1872-1949), publisher of the New York Evening Post and The Nation, was the son of railroad tycoon Henry Villard and grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. He used his fortune to promote liberal causes, including women's suffrage, anti-imperialism, and Negro uplift. Villard originally supported Booker T. Washington, believing education was the solution to the "Negro problem," but the Brownsville affair and Atlanta riot convinced him of the need for a more militant strategy. The "Committee for the Advancement of the Negro Race" (1906) he envisioned became the blueprint for the NAACP. Villard funded the NAACP's budget and provided free office space in the Evening Post building. He resigned as NAACP chairman in 1914 due to irreconcilable differences with W. E. B. Du Bois, but remained a board member until his death in 1949.

First Issue of The Crisis

In November 1910 the NAACP launched The Crisis, an official organ under the editorship of W.E.B. Du Bois. The journal's title was inspired by James Lowell's poem "The Present Crisis." Through The Crisis Du Bois reported the NAACP's activities and rallied support, while articulating his views on race and politics. For the largely black readership he personified the NAACP. The Crisis also served as an open forum for discourse on race relations and black life and culture. The monthly issues included articles on current events, editorial commentary, short stories and poems, art work, and reports on the achievements of people of color worldwide.

Constitution and By-Laws of the NAACP

In 1911 Albert E. Pillsbury, former Massachusetts attorney general and nephew of abolitionist Parker Pillsbury, drafted the NAACP's constitution and by-laws. A second constitution and new by-laws were drafted in 1912 and approved in 1914. The by-laws established a board of directors to govern the organization, with each director serving three-year terms. The board elected officers: a chairman, president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer; and created all standing and special committees, departments, bureaus, branches, and other units. It held an annual meeting in January and met monthly to consider reports from committees. The NAACP constitution states that "the Annual Convention shall have the power to establish polices and programs. All actions on the question of policy and program shall be binding on the board, officers, branches, and other units of the Association."

NAACP Victory in Guinn v. United States

Many southern and border states devised legal barriers to circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment and prohibit black voting. These barriers included poll taxes, literacy tests, "grandfather clauses," and the "white primary." In 1910 Oklahoma passed a constitutional amendment, which held that only residents whose grandfathers had voted in 1865 could vote, thus disqualifying the descendants of slaves. The NAACP persuaded the U.S. attorney general to challenge the constitutionality of the "grandfather clause," encouraged by a Maryland Circuit Court decision in 1913. Oklahoma appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Moorfield Storey was granted permission to argue the case on behalf of the NAACP. In June 1915, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Guinn v. United States that the "grandfather clause" was in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment.

The Amenia Conference Pamphlet

In 1916, one year after the death of Booker T. Washington, the NAACP issued a call for a conference of black leaders to unite Washington's supporters and NAACP activists behind a common program. W.E.B. Du Bois and Joel Spingarn held the conference August 24-26, at Troutbeck, Spingarn's estate near Amenia, New York. The roughly fifty conferees adopted a "Unity Platform" that affirmed all forms of education for blacks and political freedom. They also pledged to work together to improve race relations and forget old "hurts and enmities." The Anemia Conference marked the NAACP's ascent as the dominant force in the civil rights movement.

The Amenia Conference, 1916

This photograph shows some of the men and women who attended the Amenia Conference in 1916. Included are NAACP activists Addie Hunton, Mary Church Terrell, Mary Talbert (Second row, left to right: 1st, 3rd, and 4th), Arthur Spingarn, William Pickens, and Charles W. Chesnutt (First row, left to right: 1st, 2nd, and 4th). Among the other conferees were Booker T. Washington allies Henry Hunt, Emmet J. Scott, Fred Moore, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson; Niagarites Charles E. Bentley, L.M. Hershaw, and Mason Hawkins; and educators Kelly Miller and Lucy Laney (Second row, left to right: 5th and 7th).

Buchanan v. Warley

The NAACP sought out cases that infringed on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in order to set legal precedents and ultimately secure the constitutional rights of African Americans. An early victory was Buchanan v. Warley, a case involving residential segregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville and other cities passed ordinances to prevent people of color from residing in white neighborhoods. Moorfield Storey, the NAACP's first president and a constitutional attorney, argued the case before the Supreme Court in April 1917. The Court reversed the decision of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, ruling that the Louisville ordinance violated the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result of the ruling, whites resorted to private restrictive covenants, in which property owners agreed to sell or rent to whites only.

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NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom Founding and Early Years

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In response to the Springfield riot, a group of black and white activists, Jews and gentiles, met in New York City to address the deteriorating status of African Americans. Among them were veterans of the Niagara Movement (a civil rights group), suffragists, social workers, labor reformers, philanthropists, socialists, anti-imperialists, educators, clergymen, and journalists-some with roots in abolitionism.

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Lynching of Jesse Washington, 1916

Lynching of Jesse Washington, 1916

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. Date/Time Thumbnail Dimensions User Comment current 19:22, 27 January 2019 1,879 × 1,323 (1.11 MB) Jay D. Easy Cropped 5 % horizontally, 17 % vertically using CropTool with precise mode.

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Court Martial of 64 members of the 24th Infantry. Trial started November 1, 1917, Fort Sam Houston

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Dorris Miller awarded medal or honor 1942

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Dorris Miller awarded medal or honor 1942

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Doris Miller (October 12, 1919 - November 24, 1943) was a United States Navy cook third class who was killed in action during World War II. He was the first black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration for valor in combat after the Medal of Honor.

Miller served aboard the battleship West Virginia, which was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. During the attack, he helped several sailors who were wounded, and while manning an anti-aircraft machine gun for which he had no training, he shot down several Japanese planes. Miller's actions earned him the medal, and the resulting publicity for Miller in the black press made him an iconic emblem of the fight for civil rights for black Americans. In November 1943, Miller was killed while serving aboard the escort carrier Liscome Bay when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine during the Battle of Makin in the Gilbert Islands.

The destroyer escort/Knox-class frigate USS Miller (reclassified as a frigate in June 1975), in service from 1973 to 1991, was named after him. On January 19, 2020, the Navy announced that a Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear powered aircraft carrier, CVN-81, would be named after Miller. The ship is scheduled to be laid down in 2023 and launched in 2028.

Miller was born in Waco, Texas, on October 12, 1919, to Connery and Henrietta Miller. He was named Doris, as the midwife who assisted his mother was convinced before his birth that the baby would be a girl. He was the third of four sons and helped around the house, cooked meals and did laundry, as well as working on the family farm. He was a fullback on the football team at Waco's Alexander James Moore High School. He began attending the eighth grade again on January 25, 1937, at the age of 17 he repeated the grade the following year due to poor performance, so he decided to drop out of school. He filled his time squirrel hunting with a .22 rifle and completed a correspondence course in taxidermy. He applied to join the Civilian Conservation Corps, but was not accepted. At that time, he was 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed more than 200 pounds (91 kg). Miller worked on his father's farm until shortly before his 20th birthday,

Miller's nickname "Dorie" may have originated from a typographical error. He was nominated for recognition for his actions on December 7, 1941, and the Pittsburgh Courier released a story on March 14, 1942, which gave his name as "Dorie Miller". Since then, some writers have suggested that it was a "nickname to shipmates and friends".

Miller enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a mess attendant third class at the Naval Recruiting Station in Dallas, Texas, for six years on September 16, 1939. Mess attendant was one of the few ratings open at the time to black sailors. He was transferred to the Naval Training Center, Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia, arriving on September 19. After training school, he was assigned to the ammunition ship Pyro (AE-1) and then transferred on January 2, 1940, to the Colorado-class battleship West Virginia (BB-48). It was on the West Virginia where he started competition boxing, becoming the ship's heavyweight champion. In July, he was on temporary duty aboard the Nevada (BB-36) at Secondary Battery Gunnery School. He returned to the West Virginia on August 3. He advanced in rating to mess attendant second class on February 16, 1941.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Miller was a crewman aboard the West Virginia and awoke at 6 a.m. on December 7, 1941. He served breakfast mess and was collecting laundry at 7:57 a.m. when planes from the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi fired the first of seven torpedoes that hit West Virginia. The " Battle Stations" alarm went off; Miller headed for his battle station, an anti-aircraft battery magazine amidships, only to discover that a torpedo had destroyed it.

He went then to "Times Square" on deck, a central spot aboard the ship where the fore-to-aft and port-to-starboard passageways crossed, reporting himself available for other duty and was assigned to help carry wounded sailors to places of greater safety. Lieutenant Commander Doir C. Johnson, the ship's communications officer, spotted Miller and saw his physical prowess, so he ordered him to accompany him to the conning tower on the flag bridge to assist in moving the ship's captain, Mervyn Bennion, who had a gaping wound in his abdomen where he had apparently been hit by shrapnel after the first Japanese attack. Miller and another sailor lifted the skipper but were unable to remove him from the bridge, so they carried him on a cot from his exposed position on the damaged bridge to a sheltered spot on the deck behind the conning tower where he remained during the second Japanese attack. Captain Bennion refused to leave his post, questioned his officers and men about the condition of the ship, and gave orders and instructions to crew members to defend the ship and fight. Unable to go to the deck below because of smoke and flames, he was carried up a ladder to the navigation bridge, where he died from blood loss despite the aid from a pharmacist mate. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Lieutenant Frederic H. White had ordered Miller to help him and Ensign Victor Delano load the unmanned number 1 and number 2 Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns aft of the conning tower. Miller was not familiar with the weapon, but White and Delano instructed him on how to operate it. Delano expected Miller to feed ammunition to one gun, but his attention was diverted and, when he looked again, Miller was firing one of the guns. White then loaded ammunition into both guns and assigned Miller the starboard gun.

Miller fired the gun until he ran out of ammunition, when he was ordered by Lieutenant Claude V. Ricketts to help carry the captain up to the navigation bridge out of the thick oily smoke generated by the many fires on and around the ship; Miller who was officially credited with downing at least two enemy planes. "I think I got one of those Jap planes. They were diving pretty close to us," he said later. Japanese aircraft eventually dropped two armor-piercing bombs through the deck of the battleship and launched five 18-inch (460 mm) aircraft torpedoes into her port side. When the attack finally lessened, Miller helped move injured sailors through oil and water to the quarterdeck, thereby "unquestionably saving the lives of a number of people who might otherwise have been lost".

The ship was heavily damaged by bombs, torpedoes, and resulting explosions and fires, but the crew prevented her from capsizing by counter-flooding a number of compartments. Instead, West Virginia sank to the harbor bottom in shallow water as her surviving crew abandoned ship, including Miller; the ship was raised and restored for continued service in the war. On the West Virginia, 132 men were killed and 52 were wounded from the Japanese attack. On December 13, Miller reported to the heavy cruiser Indianapolis (CA-35).

Commendation

On January 1, 1942, the Navy released a list of commendations for actions on December 7. Among them was a single commendation for an unnamed black man. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to award the Distinguished Service Cross to the unknown black sailor. The Navy Board of Awards received a recommendation that the sailor be considered for recognition. On March 12, an Associated Press story named Miller as the sailor, citing the African-American newspaper Pittsburgh Courier; additional news reports credited Lawrence D. Reddick with learning the name through correspondence with the Navy Department. In the following days, Senator James M. Mead (D-NY) introduced a Senate bill [S.Res. 2392] to award Miller the Medal of Honor, and Representative John D. Dingell, Sr. (D-MI) introduced a matching House bill [H.R. 6800].

Miller was recognized as one of the "first US heroes of World War II". He was commended in a letter signed by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on April 1, and the next day, CBS Radio broadcast an episode of the series They Live Forever, which dramatized Miller's actions.

Black organizations began a campaign to honor Miller with additional recognition. On April 4, the Pittsburgh Courier urged readers to write to members of the congressional Naval Affairs Committee in support of awarding the Medal of Honor to Miller. The All-Southern Negro Youth Conference launched a signature campaign on April 17-19. On May 10, the National Negro Congress denounced Knox's recommendation against awarding Miller the Medal of Honor. On May 11, President Roosevelt approved the Navy Cross for Miller.

On May 27, Miller was personally recognized by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6) at anchor in Pearl Harbor. Nimitz presented Miller with the Navy Cross, at the time the third-highest Navy award for gallantry during combat, after the Medal of Honor and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal; on August 7, 1942, Congress revised the order of precedence, placing the Navy Cross above the Distinguished Service Medal in precedence.

Nimitz said of Miller's commendation, "This marks the first time in this conflict that such high tribute has been made in the Pacific Fleet to a member of his race and I'm sure that the future will see others similarly honored for brave acts."

Return to United States and the war

Miller advanced in rating to mess attendant first class on June 1, 1942. On June 27, the Pittsburgh Courier called for him to be allowed to return home for a war bond tour along with white war heroes. On July 25, the Pittsburgh Courier ran a photo of Miller with the caption "He Fought... Keeps Mop" next to a photo of a white survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack receiving an officer's commission. The photo caption stated that the Navy felt that Miller was "too important waiting tables in the Pacific" for him to return to the United States.

On November 23, Miller returned to Pearl Harbor and was ordered on a war bond tour while still attached to Indianapolis. In December, and January 1943, he gave presentations in Oakland, California, in his hometown of Waco, in Dallas, and to the first graduating class of black sailors from Great Lakes Naval Training Station. He was featured on the 1943 Navy recruiting poster "Above and beyond the call of duty", designed by David Stone Martin.

In February 1943, "mess attendant" was changed to the "steward's mate" rate title by the Navy. On May 15, Miller reported to Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington assigned to the newly constructed escort carrier Liscome Bay (CVE-56). He was advanced in rating to cook third class on June 1. The ship had a crew of 960 men, and its primary functions were to serve as a convoy escort, to provide aircraft for close air support during amphibious landing operations, and to ferry aircraft to naval bases and fleet carriers at sea. The Liscome Bay was the flagship for Carrier Division 24 which was under the command of Rear Admiral Henry M. Mullinnix. On October 22, Liscome Bay set sail for Pearl Harbor.

After training in Hawaii waters, Liscome Bay left Pearl Harbor on November 10, 1943, to join the Northern Task Force, Task Group 52. Miller's carrier took part in the Battle of Makin (invasion of Makin by units of the Army's 165th Regimental Combat Team, 27th Infantry Division) which had begun on November 20. On November 24, the day after Makin was captured by American soldiers and the eve of Thanksgiving that year (the cooks had broken out the frozen turkeys from Pearl Harbor), the Liscome Bay was cruising near Butaritari (Makin Atoll's main island) when it was struck just before dawn in the stern by a torpedo from the Japanese submarine I-175 (which fired four torpedoes at Task Group 5312). The carrier's own torpedoes and aircraft bombs, including 2,000-pounders, detonated a few moments later causing the ship to sink in 23 minutes. There were 272 survivors from the crew of over 900, but Miller was among the two-thirds of the crew listed as "presumed dead". His parents were informed that he was missing in action on December 7, 1943. Liscome Bay was the only ship lost in the Gilbert Islands operation.

A memorial service was held for Miller on April 30, 1944, at the Second Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, sponsored by the Victory Club. On May 28, a granite marker was dedicated at Moore High School in Waco to honor him. Miller was officially declared dead by the Navy on November 25, 1944, a year and a day after the loss of Liscome Bay. One of his brothers also had served during World War II.

Miller's decorations and awards:

For distinguished devotion to duty, extraordinary courage and disregard for his own personal safety during the attack on the Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. While at the side of his Captain on the bridge, Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.

Doris Miller Memorial, a public art installation honoring Miller on the banks of the Brazos River in Waco, Texas. Groundbreaking held in October 2015. A nine-foot bronze statue was unveiled on December 7, 2017, temporarily located at nearby Bledsoe-Miller Park.

A bronze commemorative plaque at the Doris Miller Park housing community located near Naval Station Pearl Harbor; organized by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and dedicated on October 12, 1991, which would have been Miller's 72nd birthday.

Community-related (e.g. streets & parks)

Military-related

, a destroyer escort (reclassified as a Knox-class frigate on June 30, 1975) was commissioned on June 30, 1973, in honor of Miller; Miller was decommissioned on October 15, 1991.

Doris Miller Dining Hall, located at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois[citation needed ]

Veteran-related

In 1942, Miller's actions were dramatized on the CBS Radio series They Live Forever.

The April 25, 1944, episode of the CBS Radio series Columbia Presents Corwin, titled "Dorie Got a Medal", starred Canada Lee and Josh White in Norman Corwin's "jazz-and-jive opera" about Miller.

On the December 9, 1945, broadcast of his ABC radio series Orson Welles Commentaries, Orson Welles presented a tribute to Doris Miller and spoke to his father, Connery Miller. Broadcast from the U. S. Naval Training and Distribution Center on Treasure Island, San Francisco, the program announced the naming of three theater complexes to honor three World War II heroes killed in action. Theater One was named for Doris Miller; the other two theaters were named for Medal of Honor recipients John Basilone and Edward O'Hare.

Film & television

Although he is not identified by name, Miller is portrayed by Elven Havard in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!

Miller being awarded the Navy Cross was depicted in the 2019 film Midway.

Season 5, Episode 10 of the science fiction television series The Expanse, set in the 24th century, shows an arrivals board at the Lovell City Terminal on Luna (the Moon) that shows the UNN Dorie Miller as "on time".

Cutrer, Thomas W.; Parrish, T. Michael (2017). Doris Miller, Pearl Harbor, and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1623496029.

Miller, Richard E. (2004). The Messman Chronicles: African Americans in the U.S. Navy, 1932-1943. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-539-X.

O'Neal, Bill (2007). Doris Miller: Hero of Pearl Harbor. Waco, Texas: Eakin Press. ISBN 978-1934645017.

Sapper, Neil (1980). "Aboard the Wrong Ship in the Right Books: Doris Miller and Historical Accuracy". East Texas Historical Journal. 18 (1).

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Doris Miller (October 12, 1919 - November 24, 1943) was a United States Navy cook third class who was killed in action during World War II. He was the first black American to be awarded the Navy Cross, the highest decoration for valor in combat after the Medal of Honor.

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SPANISH CONVERSATION by E. Ethelbert Miller.

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On this date in 1944, Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 was argued. This was a landmark ruling of the United States Supreme Court with regard to racial desegregation and voter suppression. Decided on April 3rd, 1944, it overturned the Texas state law that authorized parties to set their internal rul…

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A case in which the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited the University of Texas from rejecting applicants solely on the basis of race.

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 d oe williams integrates collegiate sports 1953

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 d oe williams integrates collegiate sports 1953

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Story Links RIO GRANDE VALLEY - On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

The decision was the beginning of a long road to desegregate schools, particularly in the South. The decision also helped to push the still developing civil rights movement forward.

Still, it was another 14 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and even longer until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

It wasn't until 1976 that the Supreme Court ruled that private schools, not including religious schools, could not deny admission to students on the basis of race in Runyon v. McCrary.

However, it was only a few months after the initial Brown v. Board of Education decision that legacy institution Pan American University welcomed the first African American collegiate student-athlete in the history of the State of Texas, D. Joe Williams, who competed in baseball, cross country and track & field.

A member of the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the Texas and El Paso Baseball Halls of Fame, Williams broke the color barrier as the center fielder for the 1954 baseball team, hitting .262 to help the team to the Big State Conference Championship. Williams also won a pair of individual conference championships with the track & field team, taking the titles in the 880-yard and one-mile runs.

Williams came to Pan American after competing at Booker T. Washington High School in McAllen, a segregated school that existed from 1941-57, where he stole 26 bases as a position player and went 10-3 with 78 strikeouts as a pitcher. This led to him getting scouted by the St. Louis Browns in 1953.

Born in Dobbin on March 4, 1936, Williams moved to McAllen as a child, where he picked up baseball at the age of 10. He became one of the first African Americans to play in the Junior League in the late 1940s, where he hit over .400 as a first baseman and once pitched a one-hitter with one eye closed due to injury. He also played in a semi-pro Negro League at the age of 16.

After finishing his time at Pan American, Williams coached at Charlie Brown High School in West Columbia for five years before moving to the El Paso area, where he was a teacher and coach for 47 years at Fabens, Socorro and Tornillo High Schools. He led Fabens to three district titles in five years, advancing to the regional finals each time. He coached several players who went on to play in the Mexican League and in minor league baseball.

During his time at Fabens, Williams formed, coach and played for a semi-pro baseball team, the Viejos, for whom Williams was a two-time All-Star. He led the league in strikeouts in 1979, his second to last season as a player.

Williams also played fast-pitch softball, where he was an outstanding pitcher. After his playing career was over, Williams spent time as an umpire at several levels of baseball.

Williams was an original member of the Board of Directors for the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame, and at one point, served as the president.

He passed away on Dec. 15, 2013 at the age of 77, but Williams' legacy lives on.

After Williams broke the color barrier, Pan American remained at the forefront of integrating college athletics.

The men's basketball team, for example, won the 1963 NAIA National Championship with two Black starters - Mitchell Edwards and Luke Jackson. One of the top players off the bench was Walter Yates, a Black player who started as a freshman before Edwards, who played the same position, arrived.

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The First African American Collegiate Student-Athlete in Texas Competed Here - UTRGV Athletics

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Story Links RIO GRANDE VALLEY - On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The decision was the beginning of a long road to desegregate schools, particularly in the South.

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1955 dallas youth council protest of negro achievement day

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1955 dallas youth council protest of negro achievement day

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In 1955, the Texas State Fair in Dallas was segregated, a tradition that dated back to 1889 when planners first set aside a day for African Americans to attend the fair. Then called Colored People's Day, it was discontinued in 1910 and renamed Negro Achievement Day in 1936.

A collaboration between the Negro Chamber of Commerce and the State Fair Board, Negro Achievement Day featured a parade decked out with floats and fair Queens, the presentation of the Most Distinguished Negro Citizen Award, and high school and college football games. The day drew African American visitors from all over the state.

In 1953, the fair announced that African Americans could attend the fair on any day, but could only fully participate in the fair's enjoyments on Negro Achievement Day. Juanita Craft, NAACP Youth Council advisor for the Dallas branch, spearheaded a movement to end discrimination at the fair so that any person of any race could participate on any day they chose. Craft and members of the Youth Council decided to stage a boycott of the fair to draw attention to discriminatory practices. Teenagers, equipped with signs proclaiming "TODAY IS NEGRO APPEASEMENT DAY AT THE FAIR," picketed the parade that began at the local black high school. In an interview given in 1974, Craft remembered, "Those kids went to the starting point at Lincoln High School and boarded the floats right along with the queens and everybody else and rode down the streets saying, 'Stay out. Don't sell your pride for a segregated ride.' The kids were on top of people's houses along the route of the parade with megaphones telling about the segregated policy out there and to stay out."

When the parade reached the picket line at the entrance of the fair, participants turned and refused to enter. The picket line lasted throughout the day and into the night. While the Youth Council did not succeed in ending Negro Achievement Day, they were able to draw attention to the discrimination African Americans faced. The Youth Council was given an award by the NAACP for their well organized and peaceful demonstration. In later years, adults took over picketing the fair. Achievement Day (fair planners dropped the "Negro" in 1957) officially ended in 1961, followed by the full desegregation of the fair later in the '60s.

The boycott, and the majority of other civil rights activity in Dallas, was captured on film by photographer R. C. Hickman. Born in the East Texas town of Mineloa in 1922, Hickman moved to Dallas with his family in the 1930s. After attending Tillotson College in Austin, he served as an Army photographer in World War II, then returned to Dallas to work as a photographer for the Dallas Star Post. As the unofficial photographer of the African American community in Dallas in the 1950s, he captured pivotal moments in the city's civil rights history, including visits by Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall.

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NAACP Picket the Texas State Fair in 1955

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In 1955, members of the NAACP Youth Council formed a picket line to protest segregation at the Texas State Fair in Dallas.

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The Mansfield school desegregation incident is a 1956 event in the Civil Rights Movement in Mansfield, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

In 1955, the Mansfield Independent School District was segregated and still sent its black children to separate, run down facilities, despite the Brown v. Board of Education court decision in 1954. Three students brought a suit with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In Jackson v. Rawdon, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the students. In 1956, Mansfield ISD became the first school district in the state ordered by a federal court to desegregate. The school board approved the measure and allowed Mansfield High School to desegregate. Although other districts in Texas desegregated quietly that fall, the mayor and police chief of Mansfield did not approve of this measure. When school started on August 30, 1956, they joined over 300 whites in front of Mansfield High School. Their goal was to prevent the enrollment of the three black students. The town turned into complete turmoil as three black effigies were hanged as part of the demonstration.

Texas Governor Allan Shivers was a noted segregationist and used the power of his office to resist implementation of Brown v. Board of Education. Shivers dispatched Texas Rangers to prevent integration, led by Captain Jay Banks, who, in addition to threatening to arrest Black students, refused to take down an effigy of a Black man hanging by a noose at the entrance of Mansfield High School. Shivers then authorized the Mansfield Independent School District to send its Black students to Fort Worth, Texas. By doing this the school district had effectively ignored a federal court order for integration.

After the transfer of the Black students to Fort Worth, the demonstrations soon ended and order was restored. It was this success that in 1957 inspired Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to attempt a similar ordeal in Little Rock, Arkansas. Later that year, Texas passed more segregation laws that delayed integration even further.

Facing the lack of federal funds, the Mansfield Independent School District quietly desegregated in 1965. The decade long defiance of a federal school integration order was one of the longest in the nation during that period.

In June 2020, a statue modeled after Texas Ranger Captain Jay Banks, called One Riot, One Ranger, was removed from Dallas Love Field. It was first dedicated in 1961, 5 years after the Mansfield School Desegregation Incident.

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Mansfield school desegregation incident - Wikipedia

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The Mansfield school desegregation incident is a 1956 event in the Civil Rights Movement in Mansfield, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

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The 1965-66 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), led by Hall of Fame head coach Don Haskins. The team won the national championship in 1966, becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to do so.[citation needed ] The Miners only lost one game, a road loss to Seattle by two points. They won their games by an average of 15.2 points.

The Miners defeated Kentucky (an all-white program until 1969) 72-65 in the historic championship game, played on Saturday, March 19, at Cole Field House on the University of Maryland campus in College Park, a suburb of Washington, D.C.

The team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and inspired the book and film .

The 1965-66 Texas Western basketball team faced many issues because of their race. For example, when they won the championship no one brought out a ladder for them to cut down the net. Nevil Shed had to hoist up Willie Worsley so he could do the honors. Also, they were not invited on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was customary for the NCAA Champions. Texas Western's (UTEP's) winning the basketball national championship helped promote the desegregation of athletics in the Southeastern Conference which had its first black basketball player in 1967.

Fitzpatrick, Frank. And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Basketball Game That Changed American Sports (2000)

Haskins, Don with Dan Wetzel. Glory Road: My Story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and How One Team Triumphed Against the Odds and Changed America Forever. New York:Hyperion, 2006. 254 pp. No index. ISBN 1-4013-0791-4.

Hutchison, Phillip. "The legend of Texas Western: journalism and the epic sports spectacle that wasn't." Critical Studies in Media Communication 33.2 (2016): 154-167.

Sanchez, Ramon. Basketball's Biggest Upset: Texas Western Changed The Sport With A Win Over Kentucky In 1966 (1991) excerpt, game by game details-and play-by-play for championship game.

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1965-66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team - Wikipedia

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The 1965-66 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), led by Hall of Fame head coach Don Haskins. The team won the national championship in 1966, becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to do so.[citation needed ] The Miners only lost one game, a road loss to Seattle by two points.

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Election of barbara ordan to the texas state senate 1967,and the house of representatives 

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Election of barbara ordan to the texas state senate 1967,and the house of representatives 

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Barbara Jordan emerged as an eloquent and powerful interpreter of the Watergate impeachment investigation at a time when many Americans despaired about the Constitution and the country. As one of the first African Americans elected from the Deep South since 1898 and the first Black Congresswoman ever from that region, Jordan lent added weight to her message by her very presence on the House Judiciary Committee.

Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston, Texas, on February 21, 1936, one of three daughters of Benjamin M. Jordan and Arlyne Patten Jordan. Benjamin Jordan, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, worked in a local warehouse before becoming pastor of Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, which his family had long attended. Arlyne Jordan was an accomplished public speaker. Barbara Jordan was educated in the Houston public schools and graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School in 1952. She earned a BA from Texas Southern University in 1956 and a law degree from Boston University in 1959. That same year, she was admitted to the Massachusetts and Texas bars, and she began to practice law in Houston in 1960. To supplement her income (she worked temporarily out of her parents' home), Jordan was employed as an administrative assistant to a county judge. ¹

Barbara Jordan's political turning point occurred when she worked on the John F. Kennedy presidential campaign in 1960. She eventually helped manage a highly organized get-out-the-vote program that served Houston's 40 African-American precincts. In 1962 and 1964, Jordan ran for the Texas house of representatives but lost both times, so in 1966 she ran for the Texas senate when court-enforced redistricting created a constituency that consisted largely of minority voters. Jordan won, defeating a white liberal and becoming the first African-American state senator in the U.S. since 1883 as well as the first Black woman ever elected to that chamber. ² The other 30 (male, white) senators received her coolly, but Jordan quickly earned a reputation as an effective legislator who pushed through bills establishing the state's first minimum wage law, anti-discrimination clauses in business contracts, and the Texas Fair Employment Practices Commission. On March 28, 1972, Jordan's peers elected her president pro tempore of the Texas senate, making her the first Black woman in America to preside over a legislative body. In seconding the nomination, one of Jordan's male colleagues on the other side of the chamber stood, spread his arms open, and said, "What can I say? Black is beautiful." ³ One of Jordan's responsibilities as president pro tempore was to serve as acting governor when the governor and lieutenant governor were out of the state. When Jordan filled that largely ceremonial role on June 10, 1972, she became the first Black chief executive in the nation.

In 1971 Jordan entered the race for the Texas congressional seat encompassing downtown Houston. The district had been redrawn after the 1970 Census and was composed of a predominantly African-American and Hispanic-American population. In the 1972 Democratic primary, Jordan faced Curtis Graves, another Black state legislator, who attacked her for being too close to the white establishment. Jordan blunted Graves's charges with her legislative credentials. "I'm not going to Washington and turn things upside down in a day," she told supporters at a rally. "I'll only be one of 435. But the 434 will know I'm there." 4 Jordan took the primary with 80 percent of the vote. In the general election, against Republican Paul Merritt, she won 81 percent of the vote. Along with Andrew Jackson Young Jr. of Georgia, Jordan became the first African American in the twentieth century elected to Congress from the Deep South. In the next two campaign cycles, Jordan overwhelmed her opposition, capturing 85 percent of the total vote in both general elections. ⁵

Representative Jordan's political philosophy from her days in the state legislature led her to focus on local issues. Civil rights and women's rights activists sometimes criticized her when she chose to favor her community interests rather than theirs. She followed this pattern in the House. "I sought the power points," she once said. "I knew if I were going to get anything done, [the congressional and party leaders] would be the ones to help me get it done." ⁶ Jordan was reluctant to commit herself fully to any one interest group or caucus, such as the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), of which she was a member. House women met informally too, but Jordan's attendance at those meetings was irregular, and she was noncommittal on most issues that were brought before the group. She was especially careful not to attach herself too closely to an agenda she had little control over that might impinge on her ability to navigate and compromise within the institutional power structure. "I am neither a black politician nor a woman politician," Jordan said in 1975. "Just a politician, a professional politician." ⁷

In both her Texas legislative career and in the U.S. House, Jordan made the conscious decision to pursue power within the established system. One of her first moves in Congress was to establish relationships with Members of the Texas delegation, which had strong institutional connections. Her attention to influence inside the House was demonstrated by where she sat in the House Chamber's large, theater-style seating arrangement. CBC members traditionally sat to the far left of the chamber, but Jordan chose to sit near the center aisle because she could hear better, be seen by the presiding officer, and save an open seat for colleagues who wanted to stop and chat. Her seating preference as well as her loyalty to the Texas delegation agitated fellow CBC members, but both were consistent with Jordan's model of seeking congressional influence. ⁸

Jordan also believed that an important committee assignment, one where she would be a trailblazer because of her gender and race, would magnify her influence. Thus, she disregarded suggestions that she accept a seat on the Education and Labor Committee and used her connection with Texan Lyndon B. Johnson-she had been his guest at the White House during her time as a state legislator-to secure a plum committee assignment on the Judiciary Committee. Securing former President Johnson's intercession with Wilbur Daigh Mills of Arkansas, the chairman of the Committee on Committees, she landed a seat on the Judiciary Committee, where she served for her three terms in the House. ⁹ In the 94th and 95th Congresses (1975-1979), she was also assigned to the Committee on Government Operations. ¹⁰

It was as a freshman Member of the Judiciary Committee, however, that Jordan earned national recognition. In the summer of 1974, as the committee considered articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon for crimes associated with the Watergate Scandal, Jordan delivered opening remarks that shook the committee room and the large television audience that had tuned in to the proceedings. "My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total," Jordan said. "I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." She then explained the reasoning behind her support of each of the five articles of impeachment against President Nixon. In conclusion, Jordan said that if her fellow committee members did not find the evidence compelling enough, "then perhaps the eighteenth-century Constitution should be abandoned to a twentieth-century paper shredder." Reaction to Jordan's statement was overwhelming. Jordan recalled that people swarmed around her car after the hearings to congratulate her, and many people sent the Texas Representative letters of praise. One person even posted a message on a series of billboards in Houston: "Thank you, Barbara Jordan, for explaining the Constitution to us." ¹¹ The Watergate impeachment hearings helped create Jordan's reputation as a respected national politician.

From her first days in Congress, Jordan encouraged colleagues to extend the federal protection of civil rights to more Americans. She introduced civil rights amendments to legislation authorizing law enforcement assistance grants and joined seven other members on the Judiciary Committee in opposing Gerald R. Ford's nomination as Vice President, citing a mediocre civil rights record. In 1975, when Congress voted to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Jordan sponsored legislation that broadened the provisions of the act to include Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. Although she voted for busing to enforce racial desegregation in public schools, she was one of the few African-American Members of Congress to question the utility of the policy. ¹²

Jordan's talent as a speaker continued to contribute to her national profile. In 1976 she became the first woman and the first African-American keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention. Appearing after a subdued speech by Ohio Senator John Herschel Glenn Jr., Jordan energized the convention with her oratory. "We are a people in search of a national community," she told the delegates, "attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal.... We cannot improve on the system of government, handed down to us by the founders of the Republic, but we can find new ways to implement that system and to realize our destiny." ¹³ Amid the historical perspective of the national bicentennial, and in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and Watergate, Jordan's message, like her commanding voice, resonated with Americans. She campaigned widely for Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, who defeated President Ford in the general election. Though Carter later interviewed Jordan for a Cabinet position, he did not offer her the position of U.S. Attorney General, the one post she said she would accept.

In 1978, downplaying reports about her poor health, Jordan declined to run for what would have been certain re-election to a fourth term, citing her "internal compass," which she said was pointing her "away from demands that are all consuming." ¹⁴ She also said she wanted to work more directly on behalf of her fellow Texans. Jordan was appointed the Lyndon Johnson Chair in National Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, where she taught until the early 1990s. She continued to lecture widely on national affairs. In 1988 and 1992, she delivered speeches at the Democratic National Convention. Her 1992 keynote address was delivered from a wheelchair while she was in the midst of a lengthy battle with multiple sclerosis. In 1994 President William J. (Bill) Clinton appointed her to lead the Commission on Immigration Reform, a bipartisan group that delivered its findings in September of that year. Jordan received nearly two dozen honorary degrees and, in 1990, was named to the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca, New York. She never married and carefully guarded her private life. ¹⁵

Jordan died in Austin, Texas, on January 17, 1996, from pneumonia that was a complication of leukemia. ¹⁶ Newspapers across the country published extensive obituaries that celebrated her oratory, her defense of the Constitution, and the role she played in inspiring generations of minority women in politics. "She left Congress after only three terms, a mere six years," the editors of the New York Times wrote. "No landmark legislation bears her name. Yet few lawmakers in this century have left a more profound and positive impression on the nation than Barbara Jordan." ¹⁷

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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JORDAN, Barbara Charline | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

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Barbara Jordan emerged as an eloquent and powerful interpreter of the Watergate impeachment investigation at a time when many Americans despaired about the Constitution and the country. As one of the first African Americans elected from the Deep South since 1898 and the first Black Congresswoman ever from that region, Jordan lent added weight to her message by her very presence on the House Judiciary Committee.

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Texas legislative black caucus formed 1973

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Texas legislative black caucus formed 1973

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The Texas Legislative Black Caucus (TLBC) was organized in 1973 by eight African Americans who were elected to the Texas House of Representatives in November of 1972. These eight new state representatives were the largest number of African Americans elected to serve in the Texas legislature since Reconstruction. The founding members of the TLBC were Paul Ragsdale, Sam Hudson III, and Eddie Bernice Johnson from Dallas; Craig Washington, Anthony Hall, Senfronia Thompson, and Mickey Leland from Houston; and G. J. Sutton from San Antonio. These individuals formed the Black Caucus to work cooperatively with the Democratic Party in the interest of the African-American community in Texas. They also sought to work with other legislative caucuses, such as the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, to provide a bloc of votes that would support legislation to improve the quality of life for African Americans in areas such as education, housing, health care, and employment.

From its small beginnings the Texas Legislative Black Caucus has grown in number and influence. In 2013 it had a membership of eighteen legislators who represented Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Frisco, and Beaumont. Three years after its founding, the Black Caucus started holding annual conventions to connect with its constituents throughout the state of Texas. In 1993 the Black Caucus upgraded its annual conventions and began hosting the Texas Legislative Black Caucus Weekend, similar to the Congressional Black Caucus Weekend held annually by the African-American members of the United States Congress. This event has evolved into the bi-annual, African-American Legislative Summit hosted by the members of the Black Caucus. At these bi-annual summits, the Black Caucus hosts a banquet to award academic scholarships to students from high schools across the state through its foundation and to recognize individuals from throughout the state for their contributions to their communities. The summits also consist of workshops focusing on issues related to improving African-American life in Texas. In addition to spearheading the creation of a Department of African American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, the Black Caucus has helped to create an Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Texas at Austin "to work closely with the Texas Legislature to address and study issues affecting the African-American community and the rapidly growing urban population in the state."

Research on the effectiveness of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus has shown that since its organization in 1973, it has been very effective in representing its constituents on critical and social issues such as education, housing, and employment. Although as of 2013 it has been a minority within a minority party in the Texas legislature, its members' voting cohesion on "race relevant issues" has helped to pass legislation beneficial to the state's African-American and underserved populations.

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The Texas Legislative Black Caucus (TLBC) was organized in 1973 by eight African Americans who were elected to the Texas House of Representatives in November of 1972. These eight new state representatives were the largest number of African Americans elected to serve in the Texas legislature since Reconstruction.