Top Photo: Historic photo of sailors loading munitions at Port Chicago, colorized by the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial. Photo: National Parks Service

The Secretary of the Navy announced Wednesday the full exoneration of 256 defendants who were court-martialed following the 1944 Port Chicago explosion. 

Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced the exoneration on the 80th anniversary of the explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California that killed 320 people, injured 400 others, destroyed two ships and a train, and caused damage to the nearby town of Port Chicago, California. The aftermath of the disaster compelled a reevaluation of the role of racial minorities in the military following World War II, a consequential prologue to the broader Civil Rights Movement that changed America.

At Port Chicago, Black sailors who had been trained for wartime roles were instead relegated to loading munitions aboard ships under the supervision of white officers. A premium was put on speed and efficiency, and officers would conduct “races” among teams of loaders with little regard for their safety. Neither Black sailors nor their officers were trained adequately for the dangerous work, and many loaders reported that they were not given gloves for handling 600-pound bombs and other munitions—including highly volatile incendiaries fitted with detonators.

So little training was provided that the longshoremen’s union warned that a catastrophe was imminent.

Ground level view of auto/structural damage, looking north toward pier at Port Chicago, colorized by the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial. Photo: National Parks Service

On July 17, 1944, that admonition came true with almost unimaginable consequences. For reasons that can never be accurately determined, a cataclysmic series of explosions—the largest man-made detonation in history to that point—erupted with the force of 5,000 tons of TNT. Instantly, 320 men, two-thirds of them African American, were killed, and hundreds more were injured. The ships they were loading were nearly obliterated; a locomotive evaporated. The force of the blasts was felt 20 miles away in San Francisco.

In the aftermath, white officers were given hardship leaves and Black survivors were ordered to clean up the decimated base, including the remains of their dead colleagues. Then they were ordered to resume loading operations at the Mare Island Ammunition Depot across the Sacramento River in Vallejo. Without an explanation for what happened at Port Chicago or additional training, dozens of the sailors refused.

In total, 258 Black sailors refused to resume handling the ammunition. After threats of disciplinary action, 208 returned to work but were still convicted by the Navy at a summary court-martial for disobeying orders.

Those defendants were sentenced to bad conduct discharges and forfeited three month’s pay. Later, following reviews of the summary court-martial, the bad conduct discharges were suspended, the forfeitures were reduced, and one conviction was set aside for insufficient evidence. 

The remaining 50 sailors who refused to return to work were charged and convicted of mutiny at a mass general court-martial. The “Port Chicago 50” were sentenced to dishonorable discharges, 15 years confinement at hard labor, demotion to E-1, and total forfeitures of their pay. 

During later reviews, the dishonorable discharges were essentially reduced to time served and the period of confinement was reduced from 15 years to 17 to 29 months. One conviction was set aside for mental incompetency. By January 1946, nearly all of the sailors were released and were allowed to finish their contracts.

For many, the story of the Port Chicago explosion and the disturbing prosecution of the sailors was forgotten with the end of the war, although the 1948 decision of President Harry S. Truman to issue an Executive Order desegregating the military had roots in the controversy over the mutiny convictions.

For the Port Chicago 50, however, there was no justice, and most lived the rest of their lives concealing their experience even from their own families. Only in the early 1990s did Congress begin looking into the case, led by US Representative George Miller whose district included the Port Chicago site. In 1994, Congress created the Port Chicago Naval Magazine Memorial, which is now part of the National Park System. Also in the 1990s, the Secretary of Defense agreed that racism was a chronic problem at the facility. In 1999, President Bill Clinton granted a pardon to Freddie Meeks, one of the few sailors still alive at the time. A decade and a half later, then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus endorsed additional “executive action in favor of the 49 remaining Sailors . . . in light of the well-documented challenges associated with uniformed service by African Americans during that era.”

Ground view of ammunition pier structure, south-facing at Port Chicago, colorized by the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial. Photo: National Parks Service

“The Port Chicago 50, and the hundreds who stood with them, may not be with us today, but their story lives on, a testament to the enduring power of courage and the unwavering pursuit of justice,” said Secretary Del Toro. “They stand as a beacon of hope, forever reminding us that even in the face of overwhelming odds, the fight for what's right can and will prevail.”