[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 38 (Thursday, March 6, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING LEROY ``POP'' MILLER FOR HIS SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY AND OUR 
                               COMMUNITY

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. EMANUEL CLEAVER

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 6, 2014

  Mr. CLEAVER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the memory of 
Leroy ``Pop'' Miller who recently passed away after living a life of 
courage, dedication, and bravery. He left behind a legacy of honor, a 
family who will forever remember him, and a community of friends who 
say goodbye with gratitude in their hearts.
  Leroy Miller--known simply as Pop--left us at the rich age of 94 
years old. He was a longtime member of my church, St. James United 
Methodist, where he found a spiritual home after moving to Kansas City 
from Charlotte in the early 2000s. He came to Kansas City after his 
wife, Sadie, passed away. His loving son, William Miller, urged his Dad 
to make the move so he could be closer to his family, in particular his 
two grandsons--William, Jr, and Jordan.
  Before joining our community, Pop was nothing short of an historical 
figure in his home state of North Carolina. He was a member of our 
Greatest Generation and one of the few surviving African-Americans who 
fought in World War II. Just days after graduating from North Carolina 
A&T University in 1942, he was drafted into the United States Army 
where he was stationed in Europe and became a member of the famous Red 
Ball Express.
  Red Ball drivers, mostly African American men, were drawn from the 
Army's Quartermaster Corps and fought both the enemy and the hazards of 
the road and weather to successfully deliver their loads. Pop's unit 
drove trucks from the Cherbourg Peninsula all the way to the North Sea, 
and throughout France, Germany, and Holland.
  Despite his continued display of bravery, Pop and other African 
American soldiers also had to battle the racist forces that existed 
among their fellow Americans. When he returned home after serving--and 
sacrificing--for our country, he found what so many others discovered 
as well. African Americans were still not treated as equals. Even with 
his college education, he found his own job choices were very limited. 
But Pop was a fighter, on and off the battlefield, and became an 
educational pioneer, helping to break down the barriers of segregation 
in Charlotte, North Carolina, and throughout the United States.
  Pop is remembered as a strong leader who enforced discipline at a 
time when fights and riots accompanied integration in schools. He is 
remembered as a strict educator who valued academics as much as sports, 
and worked to see straight A students recognized as publicly as star 
athletes. And Leroy ``Pop'' Miller is remembered as a man who wanted to 
be known not as a successful African American principal, but simply as 
a successful principal.
  I am honored to have had Leroy ``Pop'' Miller as a member of the St. 
James congregation and as a constituent of the Fifth District of 
Missouri. He touched the lives of many and will remain in our hearts, 
and in our memories, for years to come.

                          ____________________