Port chicago mutiny1/23/2024 The vast majority of these sailors, according to National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) investigators, saw themselves as little more than expendable laborers working under egregious conditions. The Navy recognized that its black sailors performed the vast majority of ammunition ship loading and unloading in segregated units with low morale and often led by bigoted or incompetent officers. In January of 1946, however, all of the accused were given clemency and were released from prison.Īs the war came to a close, changes to the loading procedures finally came, ironically mostly due to the Port Chicago explosion and subsequent protest. No Port Chicago sailor convicted of mutiny was sentenced to death however, most were sentenced to eight to fifteen years of hard labor. They would be known as the Port Chicago 50. Fifty of them men, however, were charged with outright mutiny, a crime punishable by death. Two hundred eight of these men were court-martialed, sentenced to bad conduct discharges, and the forfeit of three month’s pay for disobeying orders. Naval officials declared a mutiny and had most of the men arrested. Those who refused the order to load ammunition said that they would follow any order, save the one to do unsafe work under these conditions. When the Navy refused to amend its procedures, the sailors declared they would not load the ships. They wanted Navy officials to change load procedures to enhance safety. When Navy replacement sailors were asked to return to loading munitions a month later, 258 African American enlisted personnel refused to follow the order. The Port Chicago explosion was by far the worst disaster on home soil during World War II. The falling debris injured another 390 people. The force of the explosion launched massive chunks of debris, some of which fell almost two miles from ground-zero. The blast wave was so powerful it could be felt as far away as Boulder City, Nevada, 430 miles to the south and caused damage 48 miles away in San Francisco. All told, 320 sailors, 202 of whom were African Americans, were instantly incinerated in the explosion. Bryan and many Navy dock workers on shore. These methods, all common practice on munitions docks at the time despite their danger, led to a munitions ship explosion that killed all the Navy men on the E.A. Sailors and dock workers were pressured by time and their superiors and were also using unsafe unloading methods. Navy who refused to return to loading ammunition after a disastrous explosion at Port Chicago, California on Jthat destroyed the Liberty ship SS E.A. The Port Chicago Mutiny involved African American enlisted men in the U.S.
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