A00301 - The Cruel Irony of Port Chicago Exonerations

 One of the most horrific incidents in Bay Area history occurred 80 years ago at place called Port Chicago, which is near the City of Concord, California. 

Port Chicago disaster - Wikipedia

As the Wikipedia article notes, 

The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion of the ship SS E. A. Bryan on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. Munitions being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations detonated, killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring at least 390 others.

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Many of those who were killed were African Americans and various concerns about what caused the explosion led to this. 

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A month later, the unsafe conditions prompted hundreds of servicemen to refuse to load munitions, an act known as the Port Chicago Mutiny. More than 200 were convicted of various charges. Fifty of these men‍—‌called the "Port Chicago 50"‍—‌were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard labor, as well as a dishonorable discharge. Forty-seven of the 50 were released in January 1946; the remaining three served additional months in prison. During and after the mutiny court-martial, questions were raised about the fairness and legality of the proceedings.^[1] Owing to public pressure, the United States Navy reconvened the courts-martial board in 1945—that board re-affirmed convictions.^[2] Those convictions stood until 2024, when the Navy exonerated all 256 men convicted during the courts-martial, including the Port Chicago 50.

Widespread publicity surrounding the case turned it into a cause célèbre among Americans opposing discrimination targeting African Americans; it and other race-related Navy protests of 1944–45 led the Navy to change its practices and initiate the desegregation of its forces beginning in February 1946.^[3][4][5] In 1994, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was dedicated to the lives lost in the disaster

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What I found to be good news was that the 256 African Americans who were convicted were officially exonerated on July 17, 2024, precisely eighty years after the Port Chicago explosion occurred. 

The Secretary of the Navy Exonerates 256 Defendants from 1944 Port Chicago General and Summary Courts-martial > United States Navy > display-pressreleases

However, what I found to be sad was that none of the 256 African Americans who were convicted were alive to receive their exoneration.  And what made this even sadder is that the person who is perhaps most responsible for obtaining this exoneration also did not live long enough to see his work rewarded.  In a rather cruel irony, Robert Allen, the Black Studies Professor who documented the experiences of 50 of the "mutineers" died on July 10, 2024, a week before the official exoneration occurred.

Robert L. Allen, Who Recounted a Naval Mutiny Trial, Dies at 82 - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Robert L. Allen, Who Recounted a Naval Mutiny Trial, Dies at 82 He wrote of how 50 Black sailors were court-martialed for refusing to keep loading munitions onto cargo ships in...

The cruel irony of the Port Chicago Exonerations was that those who would have received the greatest satisfaction from the exoneration could not receive it in this life.  They had to wait until the next.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Fairfield, California

July 24, 2024