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(Image: Portrait of John Elvis Miller)

John Elvis Miller Papers

Personal Papers, 1917-1981

Manuscript collection MC 1358



JOHN ELVIS MILLER

John Elvis Miller (1888-1981), attorney, congressman, U.S. senator, and federal judge, was born near Aid, Missouri, the son of John A. and Mary K. Miller. After receiving his L.L.B. at the University of Kentucky in 1912, he moved to Searcy, Arkansas, and began practicing law. In 1913 he was elected Searcy's city attorney, and in October, 1914, he married Ethel Lucile Lindsey. Together they had two children, Mary Louise and John E. His first wife died in April, 1955, and in December, 1956, he married Ethel Skinner of Fort Smith.

In 1919-1922 Miller served as prosecuting attorney of the First Judicial Circuit of Arkansas; one of his first tasks in this office was the prosecution of African Americans charged in the Elaine Riot cases. A Democrat, he was elected representative from Arkansas's Second Congressional District in 1930, and would continue to serve in that capacity until 1937, when he became a reluctant candidate for U.S. senator. Miller received the opportunity to become senator upon the death of Senator Joseph T. Robinson in July, 1937. Then Arkansas governor Carl E. Bailey, an ardent supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, secured the state Democratic party's nomination through action of the state central committee, which selected Bailey to succeed Robinson but declined to hold a special primary to affirm Bailey's nomination. After several other Arkansas congressmen declined, including John L. McClellan, opponents of Bailey persuaded Miller to run for the senatorial position. Campaigning on a platform denouncing the high-handed manner in which Bailey received his nomination, Miller defeated his opponent in October, 1937, garnering the support of sixty-two of Arkansas's seventy-five counties. Miller served as senator until April, 1941, when President Roosevelt appointed him to the bench of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. As judge for that district Miller received notoriety for his decision in 1956 favoring the gradual integration of Little Rock's public schools; the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Miller's decision. In 1967 he was made a senior U.S. district judge. Declining health stopped him from hearing court cases after 1976, although he remained active in the judiciary as a consultant. He finally resigned his position as federal judge in 1979. Miller died on January 30, 1981.

For more information, please see John Elvis Miller Oral History Interview (MC 279)

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THE COLLECTION

Papers and materials pertaining to John Elvis Miller were donated to Special Collections by Robert L. Skinner of Fort Smith, Arkansas, on August 23, 1996. Funds for processing the Miller Papers were donated by Judge Miller's former law clerks, including the Honorable Bradley D. Jesson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Arkansas, Edgar E. Bethell, Granville T. Harper, Charles R. Ledbetter, Claibourne W. Patty, James E. West, and G. Alan Wooten.

The collection contains correspondence, press clippings, speeches, and other materials highlighting certain periods of Miller life, especially 1937-1941, and from the late 1950s through his death in 1981. The collection's six scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings covering his 1937 senatorial campaign and his career as a U.S. Senator. The collection also includes fifty-eight images, including individual portraits, photographs of formal occasions, and family and recreational snapshots. Especially notable are the fifteen individual images of Miller, which include portraits from almost every stage of his career, from 1917 to the mid-1960s, as well as informal images of Miller in the 1970s.

Additional information on Miller is available in the Special Collections Vertical File (folder labeled "Miller, John E.") and the Judge John E. Miller Collection housed in the Old Fort Museum in Fort Smith.

Restrictions apply. Original vinyl record albums are unavailable. Cassette recordings have been made for research use.

Processed by Todd Everett Lewis, February 1997. Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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CONTENTS OF COLLECTION (7 boxes)

Box 1
  1. Correspondence and Miscellaneous Items, 1937-1942
  2. Correspondence and Miscellaneous Items, 1954, 1963-1981
  3. Speeches and Campaign Literature
  4. Court Docket, 10 June 1966
  5. Clippings, 1937
  6. Clippings, 1938-1969
  7. Clippings, 1970-1981
  8. Printed Materials--Miscellaneous Items
  9. Printed Materials--University of Kentucky Distinguished Alumni
  10. [Honorary degree of] Doctor of Laws, University of Arkansas, 1949
  11. University of Kentucky Distinguished Alumni Centennial Award, February 22, 1965
  12. Judge John E. Miller Collection Inventory, Old Fort Museum, Fort Smith
  13. Audio Recordings: "Political Talk by Congressman John E. Miller," October 6, 1937, 2 cassette tapes, duplicates of Two 33 1/3 recordings. Restriction: The original vinyl record albums are unavailable for use.
Box 2
  1. Scrapbook 1: Clippings relating to Miller's Senatorial Campaign, organized county by county, July-October 1937
  2. Scrapbook 2: Clippings relating to Miller's Senatorial Campaign, September-October 1937
Box 3
  1. Scrapbook 3: Clippings relating to Miller's Senatorial Campaign, August 1937-October 1937
  2. Scrapbook 4: Clippings relating to Miller's Career as Senator, November 1937-December 1939
Box 4
  1. Scrapbook 5: Clippings relating to politics in Arkansas, November 1939-March 1941
  2. Scrapbook 6: Clippings relating to Miller's career as Senator and Judge of the Western district of Arkansas, January 1940-February 1941; and campaign speeches from October 1937
Box 5
  1. Images 1-7
  2. Images 8-15
  3. Images 16-22
  4. Images 23-30
  5. Images 31-37
  6. Images 38-49
  7. Images 50-55
  8. Images 56-58
Box 6 (oversize materials)
  1. Honorary Degree of Doctor of Law, Harding College, Searcy, June 2, 1960
  2. Honorary Membership in Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, November 1, 1972
  3. Bachelor of Laws Degree, State University of Kentucky, June 6, 1912
  4. Attorney's License, State of Arkansas, July 1, 1912
  5. OV image folder (Images 6, 12, 16, 30, 52, 57, 58)
  6. OV image folder (Image 11)
Box 7
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