The Disaster
It was the worst war-related disaster in the United States during World War II. On July 17, 1944, Port Chicago, a Navy ammunition loading base in the San Francisco Bay Area, was destroyed by a devastating explosion that killed hundreds and heavily damaged the nearby town of the same name.
Most of those who died were young African American sailors, serving in a segregated Navy that showed little concern for proper training or their safety. When the surviving sailors balked at going back to work under the same officers and the same conditions 50 of them were convicted of mutiny in a major miscarriage of justice.
The convictions sparked public protests and drew the attention of Thurgood Marshall and Eleanor Roosevelt. Although the black sailors were imprisoned, their protest and the subsequent public outcry prodded the Navy to initiate a process of racial desegregation, eventually to be followed by the armed forces as a whole.
Presently a campaign is underway to establish a permanent Port Chicago National Memorial to remember those who died in the tragedy. Efforts are also being made to overturn the unjust mutiny convictions of the African American sailors.
