History: Dorie Miller saves lives at Pearl Harbor
December 6, 1865: The state of Georgia provided the final vote needed for the 13th Amendment to become part of the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery. “ Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Two days before, the Mississippi Legislature had voted to reject ratification. In 1995, the Mississippi Legislature voted to ratify the anti-slavery amendment, but because of a paperwork snafu, the vote failed to become official until 2013.
December 6, 1997: Eddie Robinson coached his last game for Grambling State University and retired with 45 winning seasons and 408 wins, breaking longtime Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s win total and setting an NCAA record. With little money and no assistant coaches, Robinson built Grambling into a football powerhouse, turning out many future NFL players, including Buck Buchanan and Willie Brown, who were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1997, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and six years later, Grambling named its football stadium after him. A host of football awards now bear his name. Nine years before he died in 2007, Super Bowl XXXII was dedicated to him.
December 7, 1941: Doris “Dorie” Miller, a mess attendant aboard the battleship USS West Virginia, helped carry injured officers and seamen to safety during the attack on Pearl Harbor. As Japanese planes swooped down, he manned an anti-aircraft gun and fired at the enemy (despite no prior training). He became the first African American to receive the Navy Cross for his heroic actions, and a Navy recruiting poster featured him with the slogan, “above and beyond the call of duty.” Before 1943 ended, a torpedo struck his ship, the Liscome Bay, killing more than 600 crew members, including Miller. In 1973, the Navy commissioned a ship to honor him. In the 2001 film, “Pearl Harbor,” Miller was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr.
December 8, 1863: The Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction was issued by President Lincoln. It offered pardon and restoration of property to Confederates who took an oath of allegiance to the Union and agreed to accept emancipation. It also proposed a plan by which loyal voters of a seceded state could begin the process of readmission into the Union.
December 8, 1925: Sammy Davis Jr., who succeeded as a dancer, singer and actor on Broadway, was born. He starred in such films as Porgy and Bess, had his own TV variety show and became a successful recording artist and member of the “Rat Pack” along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and others. His 1972 hit record, “The Candy Man,” helped cement his reputation as “Mr. Show Business.” Three years before he died in 1990, he became a Kennedy Center Honors recipient.
December 8, 1955: The Montgomery Improvement Association set up a carpooling system for bus boycotters when the bus company refused the group’s list of demands.
December 9, 1872: P.B.S. Pinchback became governor in Louisiana. He was the first African-American governor in the U.S. He was appointed to the position during impeachment proceedings against the elected governor. He later helped establish Southern University for African Americans.
December 9, 1952: The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on four school cases, consolidated as Brown v. Board of Education. Exactly one year later, the case was argued a second time.
December 10, 1948: The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stated, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
December 10, 1950: Detroit-born U.N. diplomat Ralph J. Bunche became the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The award recognized his peace mediation during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. In his acceptance speech, Bunche said, “The objective of any who sincerely believe in peace clearly must be to exhaust every honorable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions which beget further war.”
December 11, 1961: A U.S. Supreme Court decision threw out the convictions of African-American students arrested for taking part in a sit-in at the Kress Department Store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The students from Southern University had been expelled and barred from attending any public colleges or universities in Louisiana.
December 12, 1870: Joseph H. Rainey became the first African-American lawmaker sworn into the U.S. House, serving for 10 years in his South Carolina seat. His father bought their family’s freedom from slavery. But during the Civil War, he was forced to work for the Confederate cause. In 1862, he and his family escaped to Bermuda. When he returned to Charleston after the war, he became politically active, championing civil rights causes. On the floor of Congress, he argued in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, questioning why black members “cannot enjoy the same immunities that are accorded to white members? Why cannot we stop at hotels here without meeting objection? Why cannot we go into restaurants without being insulted?” In 2015, his portrait became the first of a black congressman displayed in the House.
December 12, 1938: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states providing a school to white students must provide in-state education to African Americans as well. The decision came after the Law School at the University of Missouri refused admission to Lloyd Gaines because he was African American.
Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.