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ETHJ Vol-18 No-1 East Texas Historical Journal Volume 18 Issue 1 Article 1 3-1980 ETHJ Vol-18 No-1 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj Part of the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation (1980) "ETHJ Vol-18 No-1," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 18 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol18/iss1/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the History at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VOLUME XVlD 1980 NUMBER I EAST TEXAS mSTORlCAL ASSOCIATION OFFlCERS Frank H Smyrl.................................. .. , President Ms. Marion Holl .................................•.........Firsl Vice-Presidenl Max S. LaJe .. ..............•.....•........•............Second Vice·President Ms. Tommie Jan Lowery ...........................•..................Secretary DIRECTORS Ms. Lois Parker ........•.•.............Beaumont ....•...............1980 Irvin May ...............•..............College Sialion ....•...•..•.•......1980 Charles K. Phillips .............•........Nacogdoches 1981 Ms. Willie Earl Tindall ........••........San Augustine. ...•..••....•...... 1981 Ms. Corrinne Daniel Dallas ................•...........1981 Lee Lawrence _ _.....•.........Tyler .... ...•...•....•.. _ 1982 William R. Johnson, Nacogdoches , 1982 Bob Bowman . Lufkin 1982 James Reese ,' Nacogdoches , ex officio William Brophy , .••...............Nacogdoches . _ ex officio Ralph W. Steen , , ..Nacogdoches Director Emeritus EDITORIAL BOARD Allan Ashcraft _ _...........•....................•.......... , .. ,.Bryan Robert Glover ,,,...................... Tyler Ralph Goodwin , ,,,, Commerce Patricia Kell ,, .......•....•.. ,., , ,... .. , ,Baytown James L. Nichols ,, , Nacogdoches Bill O'Neal , _ __ _.....•...•. , , Carthage James Smallwood ,, ,, Stillwater. Oklahoma James Wilkins _ . _ , Tyler MEMBERSIDP INSTITUTIO AL MEMBERS pay 5100 annually. LIFE MEMBERS pay 5100 or mor•. SUSTAINING MEMBERS contribute 10 Ihe work oflhe Association 550 or more. REGULAR MEMBERS pay $8 dues annuaJly. STUDENT MEMBERS pay $4 dues annually. A student enrolled in high school or college is eligible for membership. P.O. Box 6223. Stephen F. Austin State University. Nacogdoches. Texas 75962. $5.00 per ropy to non·members. S3.00 per copy 10 members. XVIII - En"t Texas Hi'itoricnl AssociatIon INSTITUTIO AL MEMBERS Universily of Texas at Tyler. Tyler Huntington State Bank. Huntington EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL JOURNAL Volume XVIII 1'" Number' 1 CONTENTS ABOARD THE WRONG SHIP IN THE RIGHT BOOKS: DORIS MILLER AND HISTORICAL ACCURACY by Neil Sapper , Page 3 THE FRONTIER WOMAN AS CITY WORKER: WOMEN'S OCCUPATIONS IN DALLAS, TEXAS, 1856-1880 by Elizabeth York Enstam , _ Page 12 SHELBY: A RURAL SCHOOL IN A GERMAN IMMIGRANT SETTING by Elvie Lou Luetge ._, Page 29 MINING AND PROSPECTING ON THE LOUISIANA-TEXAS FRONTIER, 1713-1763 by Duane K. Hale ,_ Page 41 EAST TEXAS COLLOQUY "" "", Page 48 BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES , "" .. , .Page 52 Archie P. McDonald, Editor STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY P,O. BOX 6223 NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS 75962 2 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES Bass and Brunson, Fragile Empires, by Linda Cross Nance. Mia Expedition Diary, by Martin Hardwich Hall Sibley, Samuel H. Walker'.\" Account of the Mia Expedition, by Michael Everman Eckert and Amato. Ten Years in tht> Saddle, by H.C. Arbuckle Winson, Texo.\" in the Confederacy, by H.L. Sandefer Alotta, Stop the E~'il, by J. Herschel Barnhill Hutton, Vigilame Days: FrontierJu~'{jc:e Along the Niobrara, by Timothy A. Zwink Parsons. Thl' Capture qfJohn Wesley Hardin, by Thomas Burnell Colbert Samora, Bernal and Pena, GunpowderJusfice: A Reassessmentofrhe Texas Rangers, by Larry D. Roberts Haley, And the Passing of/hl' Old West, by Irvin May Meyer,Mexicoandthe United States in the OJ/Controversy, /917-1942, byD.S, Chandler Favretti, Landscapes and Gardens for Histuric BuildinRs, by Sarah Jackson Seale, RecreatinR the Hhtoric House Interior, by Patrick H. Butler III Schwartz, Radical Protest and Social Structure, by Bruce A. Glasrud Alperin, Custodians oithe Coast, by Maury Darst Wardell, A Political History of the Cherokee Nation, 1838·1907, by Gerald D. Saxon White, Git Along, Little Dogies, by Ernest B. Speck Scarborough, The Wind, by Sid Cox Purcell, Thi.l" is Texas, by Duncan G. Muckelroy Moon, TI4··i!iRht on the River, by Floyd M. Clay Ashworth, American Higher Education in Decline, by John T. Lewis, lIi Frank, Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, by Sammie Russel1 Biggers and Simms, Black Art in Houston, by Charles C. Alexander Milazzo, Slim Acheson: Dalla.l" Yesterday, by Robert E. Zeigler Coker, The Military Presence on the Gu(fCoast, by Carl L Davis Ajilvsgi, Wild Flowers oithe BiR ThiCKet, East Texas, and Western Louisiana Pittman, Tlte Natural World of the Texas Big ThiCKet The Texas Gulf Coast: Interpretations by Nine Arti.~ts Brett, That' Ain't No Such Animal and Other East Texas "}"ale"~ Abernethy, Built in Texas Fehrenback, The San Antonio Story Peters, Armadillo Martinello and Field. Who art' the Chinese Texans? Little. Camper's Guide to Texas Parks, [,oh's. and Forests Conrad, Texas EduClitional Hi.~tory: A Bibliography Nicklas. NaCoRd()ches County Court House Records: 1787-1879 Brohaugh, The Writer's Resource Guide EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 3 ABOARD THE WRONG SHIP IN THE RIGHT BOOKS: DORIS MILLER AND HISTORICAL ACCURACY by Neil Sapper Doris Miller, a young black man from Waco, enlisted in the United States Navy at the Recruiting Station in Dallas, Texas on September 19, 1939.' Within four years, his actions-as well as the official reaction-revealed the harsh extent of racial discrimination both in the Navy and in the civilian society that it mirrored. And as the case of Doris Miller reveals, racial discrimination can cloud a record of valor. When he entered the Navy as a Mess Attendant, third class, Doris Miller became one ofslightly more than 4,000 black sailors who served exclusively in the Steward's Branch. Recruitment of black messmen to work in the galleys and laundries of the U. S. Navy resumed in 1932, after an interruption of nearly thirteen years. Prior to that time, the Navy virtually excluded blacks in favor of Filipinos for these duties. l Unsurprisingly, the black newspaper in Miller's home town took umbrage at the treatment accorded a Navy recruiting announcement aimed at black Wacoans in the white daily in that city: Our local daily puts it, presumably ... in forced humor, as giving colored men the opportunity of "totin' plates instead ofcotton sacks ..." Just think ofit! The only way Negroes can die in Uncle Sam's democratic Navy is-slinging hash. 3 Heightening this irony, within four month s a black Wacoan "slinging hash" aboard the U.S.S. West Virginia in Pearl Harbor became the first United States hero of World War II. According to accounts of events at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Doris Miller was collecting laundry when the alarm for General Quarters sounded.' Enroute to his battle station during the Japanese air attack, he risked the bombing, strafing, and flame-swept decks to assist the mortally wounded commanding officer, Captain Mervyn Bennion, to a place of greater safety. Another officer on the bridge ofthe West Virginia ordered Miller to supply ammunition to a pairofinactive machine guns on deck. When that officer, Ensign Victor Delano, next checked the machine guns, he saw Miller firing one of them. It was Miller's first experience with such a weapon because messmen were not given the gunnery training received by white Neil Sapper is an Associate Professor aj"Social Sciences at Amarillo Collef(e in Amarillo, Texas. 4 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION sailors. He was quoted later in a self-deprecatory account of his valor: It wasn't hard. Ijust pUlled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about fifteen minutes ... They were diving pretty close to us.' Before the heat ofthe flames on the West Virginia forced its crew to leap into the sea, Miller had directed his machine gun so effectively that possibly four Japanese aircraft were shot down as they passed over his station. The inexact number ofplanes shot down by Miller is but one of the blurred areas on the historical record of his heroism. According to Navy Department records, Messman Miller shot down one enemy airplane, but according to Miller and some witnesses, the numberofhits was at leastfour and perhaps as high as six. 6 Unfortunately, no immediate account of the action at Pearl Harbor was given because Frank Knox, the Secretary ofthe Navy, imposed a news blackout which lasted for ten days.' In the incredible confusion following the attack. Secretary Knox reported his findings following a personal inspection tour in Hawaii. Seeking to assuage a battered national morale, Knox made vague reference to a "seaman aboard a battleship" who "single-handedly manned a machine gun and blasted an attacking torpedo plane as it leveled against his ship ...."6 Unfortunate­ ly, the Navy Secretary failed to identify the heroic sailor. As more news was released from Pearl Harbor, an anonymous officer who supposedly served on the U .S.S.Arizona (the hardest-hit warship at Pearl Harbor) was quoted in this eyewitness account: ... A Negro mess attendant who never before had fired a gun
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