Host Committee

Jennifer Bell and
     William C. McNeill III
Gary Blasi
Julian Bond
Karen Brown
Janet Carter and
     Robert Allen
Beryl Crumpton
Belva Davis
Brenda Drake
Kate Dumbleton
Troy Duster
Dorothy Ehrlich and
      Gary Sowards
Elaine Elinson and
      Rene CiriaCruz
Deborah Gee
Pat Guthrie and
      Beverly Tucker
Loni Hancock and
      Tom Bates
Kamala Harris
Aileen Clarke Hernandez
James C. Hormel and
      Timothy C. Wu
Norman Lear
Joe Lucero and
      Vince Calcagno
Reverend Diana McDaniel
Tom Meyer
Dale Minami
Jeannie Oakes
LaDene Otsuki and
      Jörg Rupf
Barbara Rodgers
Margaret Russell and
      Lee Halterman
Demetrius Shelton
Roberto Vargas and
      Rebecca Mendoza
Marilyn Waller and
      Doron Weinberg
Cheryl Ward
Dezie Woods Jones

Event Planning
Committee:

Dr. Robert Allen
Robin Brandes
Kate Dumbleton
Elaine Elinson
Val Hendrickson
Swati Kapadia
David Salniker
Marcus Shelby
Ron Wong

On the night of 17 July 1944, two transport vessels loading ammunition at the Port Chicago, California naval base were suddenly Explosionengulfed in a massive explosion. The blast destroyed everything within a one-mile radius, including the two ships, the pier and the dock.

It killed 320 men on the base, and injured nearly 400 more, most of whom were black. Also almost completely destroying the town of Port Chicago 1.5 miles away, it was the worst home-front military disaster of World War II.

Afterward, a group of surviving enlistees refused to load munitions again until they could be assured of the safety of their working conditions. [1]

The 50 seamen who refused to return to work were court-martialed, convicted of mutiny, and imprisoned until the end of the war.

In the racially divided America of World War II, their plight outraged blacks and white liberals - including a young NAACP lawyer named Thurgood Marshall.

Marshall was present at the trial and he voiced the frustration and anger of the men on trial. Marshall said, "This is not fifty men on trial for mutiny. This is the Navy on trial for its whole vicious policy towards Negroes - Negroes in the Navy don't mind loading ammunition. They just want to know why they are the only ones doing the loading! They want to know why they are segregated!"

After the war, with the help of the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall's persistence, the sentences of the 50 black sailors were significantly reduced, but not overturned.

Ultimately, the actions of the black sailors helped change the face of the U.S. Navy; soon white sailors were put to work side by side with black sailors loading ammunition at Port Chicago.

Later, again in part to Thurgood Marshall's efforts and NAACP pressure, the Navy began a systematic policy of desegregation under Secretary of Navy Forrestal.

In 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed the historic Executive Order 9981, ordering an end to the racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces, the Navy was already in compliance.

But more than 50 years later, the convictions of the 50 black sailors of Port Chicago still stand. [2]

Recent headlines about 18 men and women in the U.S. Army in Iraq who refused to deliver supplies with sub-standard, dangerous equipment along a perilous route remind us how relevant the Port Chicago mutiny is in our own times.

We invite you to join us in celebrating the courage of these servicemen and women with an inspiring confluence of civil rights and art, Port Chicago: Suite for Jazz Orchestra.

[1] Text from portchicagomutiny.com.

[2] Text from historychannel.com.