Events | Friends of Port Chicago National Memorial

Congressman George Miller (D-Martinez) participated Saturday in the dedication ceremony of America’s newest national park — the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial Park — on the 66th anniversary of the munitions explosion that took place there. Miller, whose legislation created the park, joined National Park Service officials, the Friends of Port Chicago, and members of the public to honor the anniversary and park dedication.

Since the early 1990s, Miller has spearheaded successful efforts to create the Port Chicago memorial, and now the national park, in recognition of the historic and tragic events that occurred there. In 1992, Miller championed the original legislation that designated the site as a national memorial. Since that time, the memorial has been managed by the National Park Service.

“The National Park Service is the caretaker of some of the most important pieces of our history,” Miller said. “We now place the compelling and important history associated with Port Chicago firmly in their capable hands.

“Port Chicago is not just a place – it is a powerful story,” Miller added. “It is a story about courage, conflict, racial discrimination and the struggle to overturn it. It is the story of African American contributions to the homefront effort during WWII. It is a story that is important for generations of Americans to understand. Through the establishment of this new national park, we preserve that history and make it more accessible for people to appreciate — today and for generations to come.”

On July 17, 1944, an explosion ripped through the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, killing 320 sailors, the majority of whom were African American. After the explosion, African American sailors refused to resume loading munitions onto ships bound for the Pacific Theatre for fear of a subsequent explosion. Fifty of those sailors were tried for mutiny. The sailors received support from attorney Thurgood Marshall, who later went on to become a member the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The munitions detonation at Port Chicago, the so-called mutiny, and the subsequent legal cases are a significant part of our nation’s struggle for civil rights and rightly helped lead to the desegregation of the US Navy,” said Miller before the Saturday event. “I look forward to the celebration on Saturday and the reunion of families from across the country who have been directly touched by this powerful experience.”

Miller thanked the Friends of Port Chicago, the City of Concord, the East Bay Regional Park District and the National Parks Conservation Association for their support of the Port Chicago National Memorial.

The Friends of Port Chicago presented Miller with The Friends of Port Chicago National Memorial Commemorative Heroes Award. The award “salutes Congressman George Miller with deep appreciation and in recognition of his heroic leadership in creating America’s 392nd National Park so that the tragic events of July 17, 1944 will forever be remembered.”

Miller’s legislation to establish the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial Park was signed into law by President Obama in October 2009. The legislation designated the memorial and the five acres that encompass the Port Chicago Naval Magazine blast site as an official unit of the National Park Service. Previously, the memorial was considered only an “affiliated area” of the park service and no federal money could be spent on education, historic preservation, or efforts to increase public awareness. This official designation granted allows the park service to appropriate funds, care for the memorial and increase access for future generations.

More information about the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial Park is available at http://www.nps.gov/poch/.

A standing-room only crowd filled the Regency Center in San Francisco on December 8 for the Equal Justice Society’s first annual benefit, featuring the Port Chicago Suite for Jazz Orchestra played by the Marcus Shelby Orchestra.

The event also honored the original funders of EJS, Elizabeth J. Cabraser, Quinn Delaney and Wayne Jordan, and Jack W. Londen. “Each of you provided the resources for EJS to continue at crucial junctions in our first two years, allowing EJS to survive and play a key role in defeating the right wing assault on social and racial justice,” said EJS President Eva Paterson.

EJS Chair Charles J. Ogletree welcomed the audience to “this unique confluence of art and civil rights,” an EJS production in collaboration with composer Marcus Shelby and author/historian Dr. Robert Allen.

Dr. Allen, author of The Port Chicago Mutiny, on which the jazz suite is based, explained the historical Port Chicago mutiny trial.
“The site,” he said, “is nowhere near Chicago, it is just north of San Francisco, where African American sailors – in segregated units – loaded munitions for the Pacific thereafter. It is remembered as the single worst disaster on U.S. soil during World War II.”

In July 1944 an explosion killed more than 320 men, predominantly African American sailors, and injured 400 others. The sailors objected to the racial discrimination and manifestly unsafe working conditions at the base where only blacks were assigned to load ammunitions. When 258 of the sailors protested in a work stoppage the Navy called it mutiny, setting in motion the largest mutiny trial in U.S. Navy history. In a sensational court martial 50 young black sailors were unjustly convicted.

Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund came to their defense – and the movement continues to honor these heroic black servicemen whose courageous actions ultimately led to the desegregation of the U.S. Navy.

“Although the imprisoned sailors were later released under a general amnesty after the war, their mutiny convictions have never been overturned. The injustice of their convictions cries out for redress, and reminds us of the price paid by many unsung heroes in the struggle for civil rights and justice,” said Allen.

“Today’s headlines about 18 men and women in the U.S. Army in Iraq who refused to deliver supplies with sub-standard, dangerous equipment along a perilous route remind us how relevant the Port Chicago mutiny is in our own times,” Paterson added.

Paterson’s theme was picked up in a San Francisco Chronicle editorial “In the key of war,” which opened: The injustice and horror of the Port Chicago explosion reverberated through the hall in the debut of a jazz composition at San Francisco’s Regency Center on Wednesday night.”

Describing the failure of the Bush Administration to protect the soldiers in Iraq, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s callous remarks in response to the soldiers pleas, the editorial concluded: “The voices from that hangar in Kuwait must be heard and heeded, before they become haunting notes for a requiem to this war, many years from now.”

The fourteen movements of Shelby’s composition transported the audience from a pre-war 1930s swing club where whites and blacks danced together, to the regimentation of the segregated military units to the life in the barracks where blacks from the Chicago, New York and other large urban centers lived with African Americans from the rural Mississippi and Alabama.
Powerful percussion and horn blasts mark the devastating explosion, followed by the mournful tones of a bass clarinet as the survivors were left to pick up the remains of their comrades and clean the debris.

The crowd, visibly moved by the music, responded with a standing ovation. As EJS Board member Margaret Russell said, “I have never attended an event quite like this, and last night I heard many others saying the same thing. I was so inspired by the synergy of communities, generations, and talents! The joy and energy of last night will keep me going for a long time.”

The event was organized by Ron Wong and Associates, with members of the EJS staff. The Host Committee included Julian Bond, Karen Brown, Belva Davis, Kamala Harris, Aileen Hernandez, James Hormel and Timothy Wu, Norman Lear, the Reverend Diana McDaniel, Dale Minami and other arts and civil rights leaders.

Port Chicago Sailors Featured in National Magazine

Parade Magazine, which boasts 38 million readers in Sunday newspapers across the country, featured a three-page story “Isn’t It Time to Right the Wrong?” about the African American sailors of Port Chicago.

Drawing on the Dr. Allen’s definitive history and interviews with several survivors, the author, Tom Seligson, called the court martial “one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our history.”

An action box at the end of the article listed the Equal Justice Society and our website as an important source of materials and advocacy about Port Chicago. EJS web-editor Keith Kamisugi, who created an informative and lively section on the website about Port Chicago, the jazz concert, and EJS’s involvement, reported more than 1,000 hits on the first weekend alone.

This article originally appeared in the EJS Spring 2005 E-Newsletter.

Category: Events

Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial Park Officially Dedicated

2 EJS Benefit Features Port Chicago Suite for Jazz by the Marcus Shelby Orchestra