Donald Miller

Quick Facts

Significance:

Black Artist and WWII Veteran

Place of Birth:

Jamaica

Date of Birth:

June 30, 1923

Place of Death:

Montclair, NJ

Date of Death:

February 7, 1993

Jamaican-born Donald Lloyd Miller came to the United States with his family when he was just five years old. He was drafted into the Army during World War II and stationed in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. He became a cartoonist for The Adakian, a newspaper run by the famous mystery author Corporal Dashiell Hammett. Later in life, Mr. Miller became a well-known artist, illustrator of children’s books, and art professor.

Donald Lloyd Miller (Don) was born in Jamaica in 1923 and came to the United States with his family when he was young. The Millers lived in Montclair, New Jersey. Don studied art at Cooper Union, the Art Students League, and the New School, all in New York City.

When World War II broke out, Mr. Miller was drafted into the Army and was sent to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. As an artist, he was chosen by famed author and Army Corporal Dashiell Hammett, to be a cartoonist and portraitist for the daily military newspaper, The Adakian. Hammett’s unit of the Adakian staff was the only integrated unit in World War II. The Army was officially desegrated by President Henry S. Truman in 1948.

Many, including Mr. Miller, saw Dashiell Hammett’s decision to integrate the newspaper staff as a stand against segregation. Hammett didn’t ask permission from his superiors, but simply hired two Black men, Mr. Miller and Alva Morris, the printer. Peter Porco, who wrote the Anchorage Daily Times article “Deadline Adak: Dashing Dashiell Hammett’s Adak Newspaper for the Troops,” interviewed a few staff members of the Adakian. Bill Glackin agreed that it was intentional integration. His son Brendan recalled, “My father said it was at Hammett's insistence. He was really proud of the fact his unit had integrated."

Other staff members felt the integration was normal. Bernard Kalb (staff writer), said “I didn't have any idea we were part of a racial revolution. My reaction was: This is perfectly normal to have the different races thrown together."

In 1989, on a return trip to Alaska, Mr. Miller told the Anchorage Daily News that being assigned to the Adakian was "one of life's strange and rare pieces of unexplained good luck." His wife Dr. Julia “Judy” Miller recalled, “it was an experience that changed his life, because most of the guys were older, and it opened up another world to him." Mr. Miller went on to have a long career as an artist and illustrator, in addition to being an art professor at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. His wife was the Director of the Black Studies Center there.

Mr. Miller is best known for the massive (56 feet x 7 feet) mural in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC that he painted. The mural depicts not only Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but other famous Civil Rights activists and people who lost their lives in the fight for Civil Rights. According to a pamphlet promoting the new (1986) mural, “Mr. Miller’s King Mural is a tour de force—the nation’s definitive visual documentation of Dr. King’s great influence on modern American society. … To the many achievements and sacrifices of Dr. King and the movement he led, Don Miller has committed his talents as an artist.”

In a 1998 exhibit at Seton Hall University of Mr. Miller’s work, his wife wrote in the exhibit catalog (pdf), “Early in his life, Don became fascinated by Black history and its heroes. It was a vital part of his own identity. … Don’s dream was an artist’s dream—that their work would continue to influence, inspire, and in his case, continue to instruct, long after they have departed.”

Mr. Miller passed away in 1993, and his wife, Dr. Julia “Judy" Miller, died in 2021.

References:

Black Beauty, Identity, and Spirituality: The Art of Don Miller, exhibit catalog by Judy Miller & Victor Davson, 1998. 
Deadline Adak: Dashing Dashiell Hammett’s Adak newspaper for the troops, by Peter Porco, 2015.  
The King Mural Booklet, by the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, 1986.