Port Chicago Disaster and Mutiny (1944)

Mon Jul 17, 1944

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Image: Aftermath of the Port Chicago Disaster, July 1944, from the U.S. Naval Historical Center [blackpast.org]

The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion that occurred on this day in 1944 at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, leading black sailors to mutiny to protest dangerous working conditions.

The munitions detonated while being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations, killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring 390 others. Most of the dead, injured, and those assigned to clean up the wreckage were enlisted African American sailors.

According to historian Erika Doss, “just a few weeks after the disaster, and with no discussion of why the horrific explosion of July 17th had occurred or how to prevent such a disaster from happening again, the black sailors were ordered back to work loading ordnance at the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo. Over 250 of the men refused…” This refusal came to be known as the “Port Chicago Mutiny”.

Fifty men‍, known as the “Port Chicago 50”, ‌were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard labor, as well as a dishonorable discharge. A young Thurgood Marshall undertook a formidable legal campaign, appealing their convictions, and, due to his efforts and popular pressure, the Navy eventually released 47 of the 50 mutineers.

The incident highlighted racial inequality within the Navy and was one of several incidents that led to it ending its practice of segregation in 1946.