The Port Chicago Disaster

The Largest Mass Mutiny In U.S. Naval HistoryBy

Valerie Howard

Table of Contents

The Site

The Explosion

The Mutiny

The Court Martial

The Pardon

Port Chicago

Constructed on December 9, 1941

Two days after attack on Pearl Harbor

Purpose: to load ships with ammunition

Destination of ships: the Pacific (fighting zone)

Ammunition arrived by train from Hawthorne, Nevada

Jim Crow Laws 1876-1965

U.S. Military was segregated

The norm, all U.S. Military officers were White

All difficult and dangerous work assigned to African American Navy personnel

Conditions For Sailors

125 men worked three shifts (8 hours each)

Received no training in handling ammunition

Sailors worked without gloves

New workers weren’t given instructions

Slave Like…

There was tremendous pressure to speed up the loading

Officers made bets on the quantity of ammunition their unit would load in an 8 hour shift.

The men were speeded up by threats of punishment. It was backbreaking, dangerous work.

U.S. Navy

In 1932, the Navy again recruited Blacks,

Limited in numbers

Confined to menial tasks

Primarily duty was mess men (kitchen helpers)

There were no Black officers.

In 1942, the Navy reluctantly accepted blacks for general service

The Way It Was

The Navy assured Black sailors that weapons didn’t have detonators

U.S. Coast Guard were responsible for safety

They pulled their men (all White) out of Port Chicago because of unsafe conditions

Cargo

High explosive

Incendiary bombs

Depth charges, and ammunition

4,606 tons of munitions in all.

There were sixteen rail cars on the pier with another 429 tons

The Explosion

On the evening of July 17, 1944 there were two ships being loaded at the pier.

The Liberty ship SS E.A. Bryan, after 4 days of loading, had about 4,600 tons of ammunition and explosives on board;

On board the ship were 31 U.S. Merchant Marine crew and 13 Naval Armed Guard.

FYI

Also docked at the pier was the SS Quinault Victory being loaded by about 100 black men for its maiden voyage.

On board were 36 crew and 17 Armed Guard.

Besides 430 tons of bombs waiting to be loaded, the pier held a locomotive and 16 boxcars with its crew of three civilians, and a marine sentry.

Witness

At 10:18 an Army Air Force plane flying at 9,000 feet saw pieces of white hot metal, some as large as a house, fly straight up past them.

According to the co-pilot, the "fireworks display" lasted about one minute. The explosion was heard 200 miles away.

Fatalities

320 Black enlisted men were killed

390 naval and non-listed personal injured

Tally

The explosion at Port Chicago accounted for 15% of all African-American casualties of World War II.

Mutiny

No safety changes had been made after the deadly explosion

The black ammunition handlers feared loading ammunition again

After an accident of this magnitude, it was customary for the Navy to grant 30-day survivors' leave for visitation of family.

White officers received leave

No leave was granted for the Black sailors, hospitalized or not.

FYI

Devastated by the explosion that killed over 300 friends and fellow service men and exhausted by the cleanup of debris and human remains, 258 African American seamen refused to return to the job of loading bombs. There were no new safeguards put in place with the exception of an issuance of gloves for the workers.

Facts

Most of the men were interviewed separately to see if they were willing to return to work.

Those that refused were imprisoned on a barge in the Summer heat for three days.

Of the 328 men in the three divisions, 258 were on the barge.

44 men still refused to return to work. Six later didn't show for work and were added to list to make 50 being accused of mutiny.

Aftermath

Four days after the explosion a Naval Court of Inquiry was convened to "inquire into the circumstances attending the explosion.”

Over 39 days, 125 witnesses were called to testify. Only six were black and none of those were from the group resisting.

Black sailors were not informed that the Navy was conducting an investigation.

The Court Martial

Stage 1

All given bad conduct discharges and docked three months pay.

Fifty enlisted black men were tried for mutiny.

The men stated they were willing to follow orders, but were afraid to handle ammunition under unchanged circumstances.

Stage 2

In September of 1944, the remaining 50 men faced a trial that lasted 32 days. The men were tried by seven white senior Navy officers, six as jury and one as judge.

Stage 3

In 1945 the Navy officially desegregated.

In January 1946 the 50 "mutineers" were released from prison, but had to remain in the Navy. They were sent to the South Pacific in small groups for a "probationary period," and gradually released.

Trial

All 50 were found guilty of "mutiny," and sentenced to 15 years.

Review of the sentence brought reductions for 40 of the men to sentences of 8 to 12 years.

An appeal by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP was denied.

The Process

80 minutes of deliberation

All 50 were found guilty of "mutiny,”

All of the men were dishonorably discharged

Sentenced from 8 to 15 years in jail.

The Pardon

In September 1999, a petition by Freddie Meeks (one of three sailors still living) was bolstered by 37 members of Congress including George Miller, the US representative for the district containing the disaster. The 37 Congressmen sent a letter to President Bill Clinton and in December 1999 Clinton pardoned Meeks. Meeks died several years later in June 2003.[93] Efforts to posthumously exonerate all 50 sailors have continued. In 2004, author Robert L. Allen was reported as saying "...even for today it's important to have these convictions set aside."[94]

Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial

The Port Chicago Naval Magazine National

Memorial was dedicated in 1994 to the lives

lost in the explosion.