Senate Joint Resolution 15
By John McLaurin, President, Pacific Merchant Shipping Association
Normally I don’t pay much attention to Resolutions that are introduced in state legislatures as they move through the legislative process without much notice. For the most part, they often deal with subjects of little concern or interest. But Senate Joint Resolution 15 (SJR 15), introduced at the end of March by California State Senator Steve Glazer, caught my eye. The heading was “Relative to the Port Chicago 50.” Interestingly, I just happened to be reading a book on the same subject entitled “The Port Chicago Mutiny” by Robert L. Allen – which involved one of the worst and more infamous disasters in the United States during World War II, where 320 people were killed, and ultimately resulted in the largest mass mutiny trial in the history of the United States Navy.
For those that might not be aware, on July 17, 1944, ammunition was being loaded on two vessels at Port Chicago, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, when a massive explosion took place. The vessels and landside rail cars were essentially vaporized. The town of Port Chicago, located several miles away, was damaged. A military pilot flying nearby at 9,000 feet reported seeing “… pieces of metal that were white and orange in color, hot, that went quite a ways above us.” Of the 320 U.S. sailors who were killed instantly, 202, or two-thirds of those, were Black sailors. Another 390 personnel were injured, including 233 Black sailors.
The Port Chicago explosion accounted for nearly 15 percent of all Black casualties during World War II. As part of a segregated U.S. Navy, only Black sailors performed the loading of munitions onto cargo ships as part of the war effort at Port Chicago. None were formally trained. Prior to the explosion, it was a common practice for the White naval officers to engage in competition to see which gang could load the ammunition onto the ships the fastest – weapons that included 1,000-pound bombs and 650-pound incendiary bombs. The officers often placed bets on which division could load the most weapons.
In addition to the lack of training of the Black crews, the U.S. Navy also ignored the advice, oversight, and presence of the U.S. Coast Guard during loading operations and was not interested in utilizing private sector longshore labor in loading ammunition on the ships at Port Chicago.
Several weeks after the explosion, the surviving Black sailors were tasked to load ammunition on more vessels. In the intervening weeks between the explosion and their new loading assignment, while White naval officers were provided leave, none was granted to the Black sailors; no one was given any training; no one received counseling; there was no determination as to the cause of the explosion.
At a Naval Court of Inquiry convened days after the explosion, 125 witnesses were called to testify, but only five witnesses were Black – even though only Black sailors actually loaded the bombs onboard the vessels. In fact, the Judge Advocate stated in summation at the Inquiry that “The consensus of opinion of the witnesses – and practically admitted by the interested parties – is that the colored enlisted personnel are neither temperamentally or intellectually capable of handling high explosives.”
Adding to the insult, the death benefits awarded to families of Black sailors, originally proposed in Congress at $5,000, were reduced due to the efforts of one member of Congress from Mississippi simply because the sailors were Black. That member of Congress wanted the amount lowered to $2,000; Congress settled on $3,000.
On August 9th, three weeks after the explosion, several hundred Black sailors refused to load ammunition onto vessels. Most indicated they would perform any other work assignment but the loading of ammunition and bombs onto vessels. As a result, 258 sailors were arrested and confined for three days on a barge. Fifty sailors were ultimately charged, tried, and convicted of mutiny. Ten men were sentenced to 15 years in prison; 24 were sentenced to 12 years; 11 were sentenced to 10 years, and five were sentenced to 8 years. In the following years, the Black sailors were represented by future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. On a second appeal, Marshall was successful in freeing the men – after they served two years in prison.
Several years following the Port Chicago explosion and mutiny, President Truman moved to desegregate the Armed Services. In the 1990s, the United States Navy admitted that the routine assignment of Black sailors to manual labor was clearly motivated by race – and that “… racial prejudice was responsible for the posting of only African American enlisted personnel to loading divisions at Port Chicago.”
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Resolution several years ago, exonerating the Black sailors. The Senate deleted the exoneration provision.
Resolutions introduced in the Legislature move through the legislative process without much notice. They don’t carry the force of law. They don’t fund needed programs. But sometimes they deal with intangibles. They serve as reminders about both the triumphs of our country and our failures. They can also point out the inequities of our society, the importance of our democratic value system, and the need for people to be treated with respect, dignity, and equality.
A good reminder for all of us, especially these days