Quote:

 

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Julius Ellsberry was the first resident of Birmingham or Jefferson County -- and the first African-American serviceman from Alabama -- to die in World War II. He is listed by some sources as the very first serviceman from Alabama to die.

Ellsberry, a Mess Attendant First Class on the USS Oklahoma, was one of 413 crewmen who lost their lives on the doomed battleship on the morning of Sun., Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes launched a devastating sneak attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

This shattering event -- in which more than 2,000 U.S. military personnel were killed -- pushed America into World War II.

And Ellsberry's sister, Birmingham resident Louise Ellsberry Whited, believes that Americans should do a better job of remembering their own history, including events like the infamous Japanese attack.

"Pearl Harbor is a part of history, and I think we are getting away from the important things," Whited, 78, said on Wednesday. "We are focusing on things that don't matter. I watch the news all day. That mess with Bill Cosby. And the football stuff -- the boys beating their wives. That's not news. What is important is history."

Whited opened a thick scrapbook filled with photos and clippings for some visitors to her home in Crestwood and shared some of what she has read or been told about her brother, who went off to the Navy in 1939 when his baby sister was only about two years old.

Whited, who seems to have become the keeper of the flame for her brother's legacy, talked about the sense of loss but also sense of pride felt by her family, including her mother and father.

She also recalled the pride her brother's sacrifice created in the black community in Birmingham during the war.

Eager to enlist

Ellsberry was one of seven children of John Ellsberry, who worked at Stockham Valve, and his wife, Florence, according to Whited. "He was the second oldest and the oldest son," she said. "My parents had a girl, then five boys, and I am the youngest."

Ellsberry graduated from Industrial High School, later called Parker High School, in May 1938, and joined the Navy in 1939, as soon as he turned 18.

One of Ellsberry's old high-school classmates, retired Birmingham doctor Dodson M. Curry, told The Birmingham News in December 2010 that Ellsberry wasn't financially able to go on to college, so he wanted to join the service.

"He really wanted to join the service before his 18th birthday, but my parents would have had to sign, and they wouldn't do that," Whited said. "He had to wait."

"The Spirit of Ellsberry"

The U.S. armed forces were still largely segregated at the time that Ellsberry joined the Navy. In fact, he was one of only 62 African-Americans serving in the entire Pacific fleet, according to Whited, who has done research about her brother and about Pearl Harbor.

There were reports that Ellsberry behaved bravely that day on the Oklahoma, helping some of his fellow sailors to reach safety, according to Whited.

The young man's death in combat was reported widely by The Birmingham News and other local papers, and his example engendered a tremendous amount of pride in the African-American community in Birmingham.

Emory A. Jackson -- the publisher of The Birmingham World, an African-American newspaper -- likened Ellsberry to Crispus Attucks, a black man who was killed in the first engagement of the Revolutionary War.

The members of the Housewives League, an African-American civic group, sold war bonds and financed the building of a B-24 Liberator bomber that was christened as "The Spirit of Ellsberry."

According to one source, the group raised about $300,000, a sum equal to more than $4 million today, in the African-American community. "These were some very industrious women," Whited said.

Her brother "was remembered for years," she said.

Quote:

 

Serving in a noncombat role in the Navy, Dorie Miller responded heroically when the battleship West Virginia was attacked at Pearl Harbor
Because the Navy was segregated, African-Americans were not given combat roles or weaponry training, so Miller’s adept ability to shoot down enemy planes was all the more remarkable
First African-American awarded the U.S. Navy Cross

Doris Miller, known as “Dorie,” was born in Waco, Texas, in 1919. He was one of four sons. After high school, he worked on his father’s farm until 1938 when he enlisted in the Navy as mess attendant (kitchen worker) to earn money for his family. At that time the Navy was segregated so combat positions were not open to African-Americans.

On December 7, 1941, Dorie had arisen at 6 a.m. to begin work. When the Japanese attack occurred, he immediately reported to his assigned battle station. Miller was a former football player and a Navy boxing champ so his job was to carry any of the injured to safer quarters; this included the mortally wounded ship’s captain.

Miller then returned to deck and saw that the Japanese planes were still dive-bombing the U.S. Naval Fleet. He picked up a 50-caliber Browning antiaircraft machine gun on which he had never been trained and managed to shoot down three to four enemy aircraft. (In the chaos of the attack, reports varied, and not even Miller was sure how many he hit.) He fired until he ran out of ammunition; by then the men were being ordered to abandon ship. The West Virginia had been severely damaged and was slowly sinking to the harbor bottom. Of the 1541 men on board during the attack, 130 were killed and 52 wounded.

Early Reports: Heroic “Negro Messman”

The original newspaper reports noted that a “Negro messman” had behaved heroically. The editors at the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the country’s most widely circulated black newspapers, pounced on that and sent a reporter out to identify the hero. Had this newspaper not been on the case, Dorie Miller probably would never have been identified.

On April 1, 1942 Miller was commended by the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, and on May 27, 1942 he received the Navy Cross for his extraordinary courage in battle. His rank was raised to Mess Attendant First Class on June 1, 1942.

As happened with other war heroes, Dorie Miller was then sent on a tour in the States to raise money for war bonds, but Miller he was soon called back (spring ’43) to serve on the new escort carrier the USS Liscome Bay. The ship was operating in the Pacific near the Gilbert Islands. At 5:10 a.m. on November 24, the ship was hit by a single torpedo fired from a Japanese submarine. The torpedo detonated the bomb magazine on the carrier; the bombs exploded, and the ship sank within minutes. Miller was initially listed as missing; by November 1944 he status was changed to “presumed dead.” Only 272 men survived the attack.

Today there is a Dorie Miller park in Hawaii and a good number of schools and buildings throughout the U.S. are named in his honor. He was also one of four Naval heroes featured on U.S. postal stamps in 2010.

However, many officers and men in the Navy felt that for his actions on the West Virginia at Pearl Harbor, Miller deserved more—that he should have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

For another story of an African-American hero during World War II, read about Charles David, Jr., who served in the Coast Guard.