CLARK_SIMMONS CLAUDETTE DANIEL DOREEN DORIS_MILLER ERIKA FAMILY FRANK GEORGE_BLAND GHEE_BOWMAN IRENE LEROY_MILLER LIEUTENANT_WHITE_TESTIMONY MARCUS MATTHEW PRESIDENT_ROOSEVELT PROFESSOR_LEAH_WRIGHT RADIO_PRESENTER_ON_RADIO SALENA SECRETARY_OF_THE_NAVY_FRANK_KNOX STEPHEN YOHURU YVONNY

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT:
I have said not once but many times that I have seen war and that I hate war. I hope the United States will keep out of this war.

GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
It was a nice day, everything looked calm to me. As soon as I got off duty, I was planning on going to the beach.
NARRATOR:
You’re hearing a voice that’s never been broadcast before. He’s a U.S. Navy sailor whose story you won’t know. But he and hundreds of African Americans like him will be thrust into one of the most pivotal moments in history. A day that turns the tide of the Second World War.
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
I could hear a rumbling noise. At that time, I did not know what it was. I had no idea they were about to start a war.


NARRATOR:
More than 8 million people of color served with the Allies during the Second World War.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
Troops from India, African Americans, Asians.
NARRATOR:
My grandfather was one of these men.
NARRATOR:
A soldier of color whose role in the war has never been honored.
GHEE BOWMAN
These soldiers have really, genuinely been hidden from history.
NARRATOR:
Now, by tracking down their descendants and unearthing forgotten archive, we’re going to restore these unsung heroes to their rightful place.
DOREEN STEVENS:
They weren’t supposed to write things that were going down when they were in a service, but he did it anyway. He brought us proof of what actually happened.
NARRATOR:
This series re-evaluates four of the greatest battles of World War Two.
NARRATOR:
And asks, who were these men?
STEPHEN WOODSON:
These were guys that went above and beyond the call of duty.
NARRATOR:
What was their role in the most significant war of modern times?
YVONNY LATTY:
Their stories deserve to be elevated and not erased.
NARRATOR:
And how did their experiences shape our modern world? 




NARRATOR:
It’s spring 1940 and sixty thousand American sailors begin heading to the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
NARRATOR:
Aboard the fleet are more than 1,000 Black sailors, all working below deck.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
Black recruits signed up to try to defend their country. When they get in the service, they're treated with hostility.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
The military branches including the Navy had a quota system that limited what percent of Black Americans could join each branch of the military.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
They didn't believe Black people had the intelligence, courage, bravery to be able to serve in combat roles.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
Black Americans could only serve as mess attendants aboard these Navy ships, where their job was to wait on white officers. They essentially did the cooking and cleaning. It was some of the lowliest work on the ship.
NARRATOR:
Among these new recruits are three men whose stories were erased or denied for decades. We’ve found rare interviews with them, brought to life here for the first time. 
NARRATOR:
On the USS West Virginia, we have Doris Miller. His white officers don’t know that he has the strength and courage that will save lives. 
NARRATOR:
With him is George Bland. He’s from a family of seven in Virginia. 
NARRATOR:
And nearby on the USS Utah is Clark Simmons.
NARRATOR:
Clark is just 17 when he leaves his home state of Texas where his descendants still live.
ERIKA BETHEA:
My grandfather, the man, the provider, the protector, the patriarch. Uh huh.
ERIKA BETHEA:
This article from The Honolulu Star bulletin quotes Clark Simmons being a Navy mess attendant stationed on the USS Utah. My grandfather, he was always ‘Papa’ to me. 
ERIKA BETHEA:
I always looked up to him. I was closer to him than I was to my own father.
ERIKA BETHEA:
But I think he held a lot of things very close to his chest.
NARRATOR:
What you’ll hear now is Clark’s voice, recorded when he was 77 years old. It's from only one of two recordings of him and has never been broadcast.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
I was born in Beaumont, Texas. My father was killed at a very young age.
ERIKA BETHEA:
When I asked my grandfather about his father, he told me that he was lynched.
ERIKA BETHEA:
He didn't elaborate. He didn't say he saw it. But my grandfather would have been eight or nine years old when it happened.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
I sorta were the surrogate father to my three sisters. It was in the Great Depression.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
I went in the Navy in order to send some money home.
CLAUDETTE SIMMONS:
My father, wanted to make sure that his family was provided for. But he didn’t agree with the way that African Americans were being treated.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
They told you that going into the Navy was a utopia.




“The sky’s the limit, the things that you can do.”


Never saying that you were going to be making beds and shining shoes.


Never saying that you’re going into a segregated Navy.
PROFESSOR LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR:
Segregation of the armed forces was more than just the idea that Black and white men might sleep in different barracks.
PROFESSOR LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR:
Because you have to remember, what the military symbolized, it was about honor, it was respect, it was citizenship. It was quite literally currency that was reserved for white men.

PROFESSOR LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR:
Segregation is a way of saying to Black people, you are not deserving of those things. 
NARRATOR:
At the same time, for white sailors reaching Hawaii, it must have felt like paradise.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Hawaii brought about a kind of false security. The kind of patrols that the American Navy was doing out of Hawaii was minimal.

DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The American Navy is not prepared for what is coming. 
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The United States is not involved in the European war, but the Pacific was very unsettled.

DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Japan are now partners with the Nazis of Germany who are this juggernaut that is pushing across Europe.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
And now the Japanese are invading parts of Southeast Asia and planning to move across the Pacific.
MARCUS COX:
The United States is building up their fleet in the Pearl Harbor area as a defensive measure um, to sort of keep the Japanese at bay.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Moving the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor was immediately interpreted by Japan as a direct threat to their operations in Asia and they decided that the Pacific Fleet must be annihilated. 

NARRATOR:
Over the next two hours, African American sailors will save lives and defend their country. Yet in the years ahead, what really happened here will be reshaped, their heroic actions dismissed and erased.


DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Early that morning at sunrise, the Japanese Navy had launched over 183 planes towards the island of Oahu. All have specific targets.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The time is now about 7:45. Surprise has been achieved.
NARRATOR:
As Pearl Harbor swings into view that morning, one Japanese pilot manages to take a photo. That’s the USS Utah right there, with Clark Simmons on board. His ship is among those that the Japanese hit first.

CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
I could hear planes and machine guns.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
I just didn’t know what was happening


NARRATOR:
No footage exists of what happened inside the ships, but the Pearl Harbor attack has been re-enacted time and time again. And a year on, the U.S. War Office dramatizes events for an American audience. But something’s missing from the footage, and that’s the people of color. Men like Clark Simmons. 
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
I felt the reverberation. The ship shook. The torpedo had gone through into the Utah.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
Clark Simmons immediately scrambles to his battle station, which unfortunately is below deck.

YOHURU WILLIAMS:
Because of the restrictions on African Americans in combat, most of the work that they do is below deck, which means that Clark Simmons and other African Americans would have been running right into the heart of the danger.
NARRATOR:
Daniel Martinez heard it firsthand from Clark Simmons, when he met him and interviewed him in 1998.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
He said that was the thing that was just terrifying.

DANIEL MARTINEZ:
You're below deck, the ship comes first and they're now closing off areas where there are sailors still in those compartments. 

NARRATOR:
Less than ten minutes before the Utah is hit on the other side of Ford Island, mess attendants Doris Miller and George Bland are on the morning shift. 
NARRATOR:
George Bland joins the Navy aged 19, but it isn’t until much later in his life that he opens up about his experiences. Speaking in 2002, his words are broadcast here for the first time. 
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
Black fellas were sort of like a butler to the officers. Some people treat dogs better than they do human being.
FRANK BLAND:
When he joined the Navy In 1940, Dad thought there might be some hope for African Americans.
FRANK BLAND:
But once onboard his first ship, he found that the hatred, the resentment, the expected servitude for a young Negro mess steward was literally off the chain.
FRANK BLAND:
He could not breathe, turn left or right without someone saying, hey, ‘N’ do this, pick up that.
FRANK BLAND:
Dad had several run-ins with fellow sailors on the ship, and he ended up in the brig. 
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
The Navy did a lot of things to the Black sailors, they were mistreated, misused.
FRANK BLAND:
My father told me a white sailor said, we should keep you down here in chains, just like we did your ancestors.
FRANK BLAND:
And he told me he was glad that he was locked up, because he probably would have been lynched on the ship right then.
FRANK BLAND:
It struck a nerve in Dad because he realized that what was the difference now than then?
MARCUS COX:
Even though they're maintaining racial segregation on the ships, keep in mind that everyone is working together, living together in close quarters.
MARCUS COX:
There is a concern by the U.S. Navy that African Americans serving on ships in large numbers is gonna create racial tension and also have the possibility for violence. 
NARRATOR:
For George and other Black sailors on the West Virginia, these are conditions that could crush all hope. But one man proves he can endure them, and still rise up, and that man is Doris Miller.
SALENA JAMES:
1940 Uncle Doris, he went aboard the USS West Virginia and so that's the ship that he was aboard. He was only 20 years old when he went to the Navy. Still just.

DESARE’ ALLEN:
Oh wow, he was young.
SALENA JAMES:
Yeah.
SALENA JAMES:
My Uncle Doris exhibited being an amazing athlete.
SALENA JAMES:
He had the build; he had the speed. He was the champion.
SALENA JAMES:
His boxing career on the ship showed that you could break that chain and show them, I'm so much more than the title that you're giving me.
SAILORS:
(Indistinct encouragement remarks)
FRANK BLAND:
My Dad and the Negro sailors on board would look at Doris Miller. He's strong, he’s a good fighter. That type of spirit of standing up for who you are, it infected Dad's character and he said, if he can do it, I can do it, too. 
SAILORS:
(Indistinct encouragement remarks)
NARRATOR:
It is this fighting spirit that will save countless lives when under fire. Even the lives of those who look down on him now.

DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Within minutes of the USS Utah being hit, the Japanese planes are swinging around descended on Battleship Row.

DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Possibly as many as 4 to 5 torpedoes strike the USS West Virginia with Doris Miller and George Bland aboard. 
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
I could hear a rumbling noise. I was thinking, why would the Navy send in her planes on Sunday morning?
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
I said, “Oh my goodness, something hit the ship!”
FRANK BLAND:
Dad said it was as if the ship went up in the air and sat down. He didn't know what was happening. 

DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The battleship Tennessee was hit by a bomb and fragments from that went towards the West Virginia and one of those pieces of metal disemboweled Captain Mervyn Bennion. 
NARRATOR:
Across the fleet, men of all colors put their lives on the line to help their fellow sailors, and that includes Doris Miller. 
SALENA JAMES:
My Uncle Doris, he was ordered up to deck to help his captain, to pull him to safety.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
But fires were now reaching up towards the Captain.
SALENA JAMES:
I can only imagine his heart racing, adrenaline running. 
NARRATOR:
While the attack on Pearl Harbor ramps up, all three of our heroes' lives are now under threat.


NARRATOR:
In the heat of battle, Miller’s heroic actions are noticed.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The Executive Officer, Hillenkoetter, wrote down a comment. He said Doris Miller, Mess attendant, second class, United States Navy was instrumental in hauling people through the oil and water along the quarter deck, thereby unquestionably saving the lives of a number of people who might have otherwise been lost.
NARRATOR:
On the other side of Ford Island, the USS Utah is sinking rapidly. 
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Clark Simmons was trapped below decks.

CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
You are in a state of shock. A lot of water came in.
CLAUDETTE SIMMONS:
My dad said to me that, he was scared but he had the will to live, and I think when you have a will to live, you do anything necessary to make this happen. 
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
I took off going up to where I knew there was a way of getting off the ship.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
and I ran into the chief engineer and the communication officer, and they followed me to the captain's cabin.

CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
The ship was beginning to list. Everything was beginning to break loose. 
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
We knew that it was just a matter of time before the ship was going to sink.
ERIKA BETHEA:
My grandfather told me, each person had to go out of a porthole in order to survive that ship sinking. 
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
There were two white officers with me. Each one of us took a port.
ERIKA BETHEA:
The white officers, they always came first.
ERIKA BETHEA:
Had there been three white officers and him versus two white officers and him, he said he wouldn't have made it.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
When I heard him tell that story, it just gave me a doorway into what the protocol of race was.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
After we went out the port, the lines were beginning to part. And I jumped into the water.
NARRATOR:
Within eleven minutes the Utah has capsized.

NARRATOR:
It’s captured here on film. Clark makes it to Ford Island, but others aren’t so lucky. 
ERIKA BETHEA:
What I'm imagining are the bodies that were floating in the water and, you know, how do you deal with that? How do you, how do you forget that? 

NARRATOR:
The West Virginia where Doris Miller is stationed has now been under attack for 15 minutes.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
The aerial assault is relentless and in the midst of this chaos, it becomes clear that the West Virginia is gonna have to start fighting back.
NARRATOR:
Yet no-one expects Doris, a mess attendant, to be one of the first to return fire.
SALENA JAMES:
No Black men were allowed near those guns. But when the moment presented itself, my Uncle Doris, he knew what to do. He knew to step up, aim and just fire.
NARRATOR:
No audio recording of Doris survives, but we do know what he was thinking, because he gives a newspaper interview less than a year later. We’re using an actor’s voice to voice his words.
DORIS MILLER TESTIMONY:
I just thought I better start hitting those planes before they hit me.
DORIS MILLER TESTIMONY:
I forgot all about the fact that I and other Negroes can be only messmen and are not taught how to man an anti-aircraft gun.

DORIS MILLER TESTIMONY:
Without knowing how I did it, it must have been God’s strength and mother’s blessing.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
It's a remarkable story of heroism that was unprecedented in the history of the U.S. Navy.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
His job as a mess attendant was to do laundry and to cook. Yet on that morning, he does what it takes to join the battle to help defend his, his crew, to help defend himself, to help defend his country. 
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
For white servicemen, this must have been a brutal contradiction to what they thought about the capabilities of Black sailors. 
NARRATOR:
But for the U.S. Navy in 1941, heroes come in only one color. And witness reports begin to dismiss Doris’ actions, starting with his effectiveness on the gun.
LIEUTENANT WHITE TESTIMONY
I would term it rather wild, so I doubt he hit anything. I certainly did not see him shoot down a plane.
NARRATOR:
For me it shows how quick Navy officials were to erase Doris’ heroism, an injustice that will still be felt decades later.

NARRATOR:
But right now, the West Virginia, seen here is surrounded by smoke, and George Bland and Doris Miller are still on board.





FRANK BLAND:
My father saw fellow sailors being burned because the oil and the fire in the water was singeing them.

FRANK BLAND:
And then my dad knew he had to do something to help. 
NARRATOR:
In the minutes before fires engulf the West Virginia, George Bland risks his life to pull men from the fire, extending help even to those who had insulted and abused him.
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
We would pull a guy from down below in the water pull him up and lay him in the blanket. 
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
You go to move them and the flesh just moved off the body. 
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
There wouldn’t be any eyebrows or eyelashes.
IRENE BLAND:
And I said, Dad, these are the same people that called you names and made you feel badly. He said, these were God's children, and it broke my heart that I couldn't do anything to help them, to save them. 

NARRATOR:
The order comes to evacuate the ship. Now George has no choice but to save himself.
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
As I looked around, I could see fires on the ship coming towards me.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
This is now a moment of life and death, and for George, and other sailors trying to get off the ship, it's extremely difficult and dangerous.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The oil that was seeping out from the ships caught fire and the prevailing trade winds blow it right down the line of ships. So, you have fires that are right beside the ship. 
FRANK BLAND:
Dad is trapped, and he couldn't literally go anywhere. So, he said, “help, somebody help me.”
FRANK BLAND:
Miraculously, a rope appeared down the side of the USS Tennessee. 

FRANK BLAND:
And here he is on the West Virginia, and the USS Tennessee was several feet away. My father said, “I’m gonna make a leap of faith.” 
FRANK BLAND:
He jumped.
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
By that time the fire was under me and I was on this line swinging. 
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
Finally by the grace of God, I got up all the way up to the deck of the Tennessee.
FRANK BLAND:
If my father stayed where he was on the USS West Virginia, he would have been dead. 

GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
You're fortunate to have survived it.
FRANK BLAND:
We come from a long line of ancestors that had no other choice but to look to the hills for their strength.
FRANK BLAND:
Psalms 91 is a personalized prayer that my father used. “I will be with George in trouble, and rescue George and honor George and give George my salvation.” To God be the glory because,
IRENE BLAND:
It happened.
FRANK BLAND:
it happened. God heard that.
NARRATOR:
Those who survive swim to Ford Island. That includes Doris Miller, one of the last men to escape the ship.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The attack had lasted only two hours.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
Pearl Harbor was now a smoldering wreck.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
21 vessels were sunk or damaged during the attack.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
2390 were killed. 
FRANK BLAND:
My dad was shellshocked right from that point forward. The trauma played such a significant role all through life that he had dreams just saying, “get me out of here, get me out here.” Like he’s back at Pearl Harbor. 
IRENE BLAND:
These pictures triggered PTSD for Dad in ways that were unimaginable, and he would stare at them, and then he would make a comment and then you might see him kind of break.
CLAUDETTE SIMMONS:
Just like most servicemen, they don’t come back the same. I grew up with my Dad, I’ve seen him go into a silent state and I know inside, physically, mentally, there was a lot more that was going on. Knowing my Dad the way I knew my Dad, I knew something was wrong. I knew something was wrong.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ARCHIVE:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
December 7th, 1941, really became a turning point in U.S. history. It was the event that eventually drew America into the war.

MATTHEW DELMONT:
All across the country, the cry was to remember Pearl Harbor. 
NARRATOR:
But not everyone will be remembered, as the U.S. Navy begins to exclude Black servicemen from the history books.
MARCUS COX:
The U.S. Navy, as well as every newspaper in the United States, was covering stories of heroes from Pearl Harbor. But they were all white.
NARRATOR:
The Black Press won't have it. They want Black heroes recognized too. That’s when the fight back really begins. 


SECRETARY OF THE NAVY FRANK KNOX ARCHIVE:
Of all the accounts submitted on that memorable day. The record shows a continual demonstration of courage, bravery, and fearlessness of which the American nation may well be proud.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
There are rumors circulating that a black mess attendant has performed heroically, but the Navy is reluctant to identify who it was specifically.
SALENA JAMES:
After the attack, if you were white, your name was listed, whatever you did that was so heroic was acknowledged openly. But when it came to my Uncle Doris, because he was a Black man, he was just listed as a ‘Negro messman.’ They never said his name. 
MATTHEW DELMONT:
A number of important black newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Courier doesn't stand for that. They want to identify who it was specifically because they recognized this person should be regarded as a hero for what they did at Pearl Harbor. So, the Pittsburgh Courier demands that military leaders release the name. 
SALENA JAMES:
This is the newspaper article that went out three months after the raid at Pearl harbor. The Pittsburgh Courier forced that name out of the Navy. And so, this is the very first time that they actually name Uncle Doris.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
At the same time, the Navy announces that 16 white sailors who were involved at Pearl Harbor are being awarded a Medal of Honor. And the fundamental question in that moment for the African American press, is why not Doris Miller? Was not his sacrifice, was not his courage in battle not as great and as significant as those of his white compatriots? 

NARRATOR:
The U.S. Navy can no longer suppress the news of Doris’ heroism. So, they change tack, rather than erase Doris, they use him. 
MATTHEW DELMONT:
In 1942, the Navy finally acknowledges Doris Miller, but he doesn't receive the Medal of Honor, he receives the Navy Cross, the second highest award that the Navy could bestow.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
As the first African American recipient of a naval cross, Doris Miller is receiving recognition that the Black community desperately wanted. At the same time, the Navy is seeking to exploit him.
MARCUS COX:
At this point in the war, the fighting with the Japanese has ramped up considerably and America need to fill their ranks. African Americans become a pool of soldiers and sailors that they can use to fill these vital roles.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
The Navy sends Doris Miller on a tour of the United States. A war bond tour to try to get more black men to join the Navy. 
SALENA JAMES:
By the Navy giving him that cross, it was saying, “we’re not prejudiced at all.” But it didn't show the true Navy that they were going to be joining, that there was still discrimination and hardship.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
If there was ever an indication that somebody had the skill to be promoted into combat ranks, it's Doris Miller and yet, he's still a messman.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
You'll see African Americans in large numbers enlisting, but the vast majority are still serving in a role of support services.

NARRATOR:
By now, war between the U.S. and Japan is near its height and our three heroes are dispersed across the Pacific.
FRANK BLAND:
After Pearl Harbor, my dad was reassigned to a task force to head out towards Australia.
GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
I was still in shock. Most fellas were given hospital. I didn't have that privilege. So we took off. We were fighting every day. Every week there was some battle going on.
NARRATOR:
Clark Simmons is posted to a new ship and goes straight into battle.
CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
It was not knowing what tomorrow is going to bring and we were the front line. 
NARRATOR:
Doris boards the USS Liscome Bay and sails to a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 


SALENA JAMES:
My great-grandparents, they would listen to what was going on.
RADIO PRESENTER ON RADIO
(indistinct) Eastern time and Columbia and (indistinct) network beginning at 2pm Eastern Time.
SALENA JAMES:
And then it came on the news, the Japanese planes bombed the USS Liscome Bay. 
Phone ringing
Salena James:
My great-grandparents, they knew that Doris was on that ship and at that point, my great-grandmother knew her son would never return home. 
NARRATOR:
Doris’ body is never recovered. He is one of many African Americans who lose their lives in service to their country. 
NARRATOR:
Seeing your brothers in arms die in battle is traumatizing enough, but when Black servicemen visit home during the war, they’re in for a shock.


FRANK BLAND:
My father, he finally gets his first leave, and the reality of still being segregated kicked in big time.
FRANK BLAND:
So, he gets on the bus and apparently, he's not sitting in the back of the bus far enough. So, the bus driver looks up and said, "Hey, boy, will you get your blank to the rear of the bus?” There were two German prisoners of war getting on the bus. He said, I'm here in a United States Navy uniform and you're asking me to give up my seat for these two German prisoners of war?
FRANK BLAND:
The bus driver said, just get the “H” off the bus. The bus left him in the dust and then he saw the German P.O.Ws. kind of look kind of smirked.
FRANK BLAND:
And Dad he said, I don't even know why I'm fighting for this country. I don't understand why can I suffer out there in the Pacific, and then I get no respect?
MATTHEW DELMONT:
One of the great ironies of World War Two is that you had the world's greatest democracy in the United States fighting against the world's worst racist in Adolf Hitler. Yet we have the same version of white supremacy, the same kind of racial ideologies here in the United States.
YOHURU WILLIAMS:
It crystallizes the humiliation and anger that African Americans feel because we are being asked to sacrifice but will gain nothing in the process for giving our lives. 
FRANK BLAND:
My father, he often said this was the bedrock of the beginning of civil rights. And with his persistence, he said I’m gonna show you. I am one that's here to survive.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
Most history books will tell you that the United States was fighting abroad during World War Two.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
But that wasn't the case for Black veterans. For a whole generation of Black veterans, they come home, and they just keep fighting because they weren't willing to go back to the same America that treated them as second-class citizens. They wanted to fight for a new version of America, one in which Black Americans could have actual freedom and democracy.
MATTHEW DELMONT:
They’d say, if this is important for us to fight for internationally, we also need to fight for it here in the United States. 
NARRATOR:
For George and Clark, it's a fight that continues throughout their lives. 


GEORGE BLAND TESTIMONY:
Dust you came from and dust you get back to. One of these days it's going to be alright. I won't be here to see it.

CLARK SIMMONS TESTIMONY:
Life is very short and there are more important things than just dollars and cents, and it's the respect that you get from your fellow man, and dealing with your family, and taking care of them.


NARRATOR:
In 2017 Doris’s hometown of Waco erects a statue in his honor, so he will not be forgotten again. This is the first time Doris’ family have been able to pay their respects together.
LEROY MILLER
Oh, welcome cousin. 
LEROY MILLER
It’s alright.
SALENA JAMES:
I just remember growing up, hearing that crackle of great grandma's voice, and, and the tears that ran down her face, crying for her son that never, ever came home.
NARRATOR:
Doris’ memory is at last being restored, but the U.S. Congress has still not awarded Doris the Medal of Honor.
DANIEL MARTINEZ:
The Medal of Honor, it’s the highest honor that can be bestowed. One of the criteria for the medal to be given is to go above and beyond the call of duty. Many would argue, me included, he certainly did that. 
NARRATOR:
To this day, not a single Black sailor for their service in the Second World War has been awarded this highest honor.

SALENA JAMES:
My great-grandmother fought for many years to get the Congressional Medal of Honor for her son. It is something that he truly earned.
LEROY MILLER
Thank you for his life, his legacy, for his heroics in Pearl Harbor, Amen.
FAMILY
Amen.
SALENA JAMES:
And here we are, we're still fighting for that medal.