User:Kidyntimms26/James B. McMillan

= Dr. James B. McMillan = Was the first black dentist in the state of Nevada. Dr. McMillan also advocated for equal rights by participating in the Las Vegas NAACP chapter. McMillan was able to secure this position and became a load voice for the equal treatment of the Black Community of Las Vegas.

Early Life
McMillan would grow up in Aberdeen, Mississippi with his Mother. At age five he would be witness to the cruelty of a segregated Mississippi, as an altercation involving his mother would lead to the Ku Klux Klan whipping her fifteen times. This would spur his mother to move them out of the Jim Crow South. By train they would move to New York. His mother would meet a man and move to Philadelphia. However she would meet her husband Emory Philpot a quaker and ethical man similar to his mother an ethical woman who was true to her word. McMillan's mother would raise him to be the same way. McMillan's mother stressing the importance of education to McMillan while working to keep the family afloat instilled strong values into McMillan for him to become the man that he was. During the Depression McMillan's family would move to Detroit in search of jobs and in Detroit he would work the education system through high school to an athletic scholarship. This athletic scholarship at the university of Detroit allowed him to commute from his home in Detroit and paid for his books and tuition. James McMillan was the only African - American on the football team at the University of Detroit at the time. However this was stripped from him because of a friendship with a white woman. So he paid for his senior year by working at the Ford Motor Company where he would continue to stand for African American rights.

Career
James McMillan would get enough credits to enroll in dentistry school. Being inspired by a dentist that he new from Hamtramck that had a successful practice. James McMillan would enlist during World War Two after seeing the fear mongering from foreign nations in his community. After the war McMillan would move to Nevada and become the state's first black dentist. He would use this to become a leader of the black community in Nevada. This position of leadership would allow him to use his loud voice and presence to fight for the rights of African Americans on the Las Vegas strip. McMillan would help the NAACP take direct action to put an end to segregation in Las Vegas. Which was achieved in 1960. Despite stepping down from the president position McMillan continued to speak out for the sake of racial equality. McMillan was appointed to the State Board of Dental Examiners, the Board of Directors of Health Plan of Nevada, and the Economic Opportunity Board Health Committee. Not only that but McMillan would also be a member of the Small Business Administration Advisory Council, chairman of the Governor's Commission on Minority Business Enterprises, member of the Board of Directors and Editorial Board of KVBC Television, and director of the Clark County Boys' Club, eventually McMillan would be elected to the non partisan Clark County School Board.

Legacy
Dr. McMillan's legacy lives on in Las Vegas with a public school named after him. The community is still thankful to McMillan and his hard work that advocated for their rights. McMillan made his way to Las Vegas after forging through college at the University of Detroit where he would lose his athletic scholarship due to racial reasons. McMillan graduated from Meharry Medical College's School of Dentistry in 1944. McMillan would go on and serve in World War Two and started his first dental practice in Detroit before returning to service in the Korean war. Afterwards McMillan and his wife set their sights on Las Vegas. Although McMillan had put in the time at not only school and in the U.S. Army he was still subject to discrimination which led to him speaking out and being elected as the president of the Las Vegas NAACP. His willingness to fight for the rights of African Americans and other minorities allowed him to become a leader of his community. McMillan served a life for the betterment of the black community before he passed of cancer in 1999.