DORIE MILLER an American Sailor received the Navy Cross at Pearl Harbour, May 27, 1942 One of a series of US Office of War Information (OWI) propaganda posters produced to mobilise the African American population of the United States during the Second World War. The posters attempted to convince African Americans that supporting the war effort was of benefit to ending racial segregation, and the political and economic restrictions upheld by 'Jim Crow' laws. This poster depicts Doris "Dorie" Miller a US Navy messman who assisted wounded personnel and manned an anti-aircraft gun on 7 December 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor. As an African American, Miller was overlooked for the Medal of Honor (awarded many of the other white so-called 'heroes' of Pearl Harbor) and he was only awarded the Navy Cross in May 1942 after an intense lobbying campaign from Civil Rights organisations and the Black press. He was killed in action while serving as a messman on board the USS Liscome Bay, when it struck by a torpedo during the Battle of Makin on 24 November 1943.
