The Port Chicago Mutiny: A Spark in the Civil Rights Movement. Jack Scherer Junior Division Historical Paper Paper Length: 2,485 words

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1 The Port Chicago Mutiny: A Spark in the Civil Rights Movement Jack Scherer Junior Division Historical Paper Paper Length: 2,485 words

2 When fifty African-American enlisted men refused to go back to work in Port Chicago on August 9, 1944, they took a stand against racism that few people were brave enough to take. Their courage and activism in what became known as the Port Chicago Mutiny was a large step in the long, winding path toward integrating the U.S. military. The Port Chicago Mutiny was a crucible for the United States military. It forced them to question their racial policies, and then finally integrate, making the institution stronger. At the time that the Port Chicago explosion and the trial occurred, the war was 1 reaching a fever pitch in the Pacific, and the Navy needed tons of ammunition to be sent across the Pacific to fight with. The Port Chicago Naval Base was built by the small town of Port Chicago, California, which is near San Francisco and Oakland, to 2 load ships with thousands of tons of ammunition. These ships would be loaded with bombs by divisions of black sailors. But there was one major issue at Port Chicago that everyone noticed, but very few people addressed: When we went to eat, they had a big white house out there where we went. There was two lines you look around there and 3 there s another line over there that s all white. said Percy Robinson. Racism in the military was not just confined to Port Chicago. Everywhere black soldiers were mistreated and persecuted. A young Thurgood Marshall, who would later become the first black supreme court justice, and the NAACP constantly heard stories about black soldiers and citizens being discriminated against. Many black soldiers 1 Sheinkin, Steve. The Port Chicago 50 : Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. New York: Roaring Brook Press, Print. 2 Allen, Robert L., The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U. S. Naval History. Berkeley: Heyday Books, Print. 3 pg.32

3 4 would get attacked or even killed and the attacker wouldn t even get charged. In one such incident, a black soldier was forced to give up his seat on a public bus, the man got up angrily, swore at the driver and started walking away from the bus. The driver got out of the bus, shot the man, got back in his bus and continued driving his route. He 5 was never even brought to court. Incidents like this furiated Thurgood Marshall, and he worked hard to bring as many of these cases to justice as possible. He and many other anti-segregation figures wrote letters to the military and Navy, expressing dissatisfaction about segragation and racism in the military. Despite all of the pressure, the Navy did 6 very little to budge from their policies. The Port Chicago Mutiny was largely fueled by these cultural problems at the time. Every black sailor in the military was fed up, and all it took was a spark, only in this case that spark happened to be an explosion. The Port Chicago Naval Magazine was built in 1942 to aid the war being fought 7 across the Pacific. It was named after the small town several miles away. Before the fatal explosion, the magazine was loading two ships at the pier around the clock, every 8 day. The work was done by eight different divisions, who would occasionally get a day of liberty. The town of Port Chicago was very segregated, so many of them took the much longer ride to San Francisco, which was less segregated. There were several barracks where the sailors would sleep, and when it was their work shift, they would hop 4 Roaring Brook Press, Print. 5 Id. 6 Allen, Robert L., The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U. S. Naval History. Berkeley: Heyday Books, Print. 7 United States. National Park Service. "Places- Port Chicago Naval Magazine Memorial (U.S. National Park Service." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d. Web. 26 Nov

4 9 onto buses or cattle cars to ride the mile ride to the pier, where they would begin their work. Everyone working on the pier sensed the uncertainty in the air. The sailors were never given any training on how to load ammunition, and the officers supervising them 10 received only brief training on how to load ammunition. To make things worse, the officers of the divisions would race their divisions, betting on how much tonnage their 11 division could load. A division that did not meet their officers expectations would often 12 find themselves with a very unhappy division officer. Everyone knew that an explosion was bound to happen given the awful working conditions at Port Chicago. The sailors were also so inexperienced that they didn t know what would happen sometimes. In one of these incidents, a projectile started leaking red dye and making hissing noises, and everyone thought it was going to explode. People broke their legs trying to get out of the hold, and it never even exploded. Spencer Sikes, a young man that was working on the dock thought to himself Boy, I'll never make it back home, he thought as he 13 worked. I ll never see my mom again.. On July 17, 1944, the worst happened; both ships docked at the pier at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine exploded. The explosion registered as a 3.4 earthquake on 14 the Richter scale and was felt by people in towns miles away. Three-hundred and twenty seven people were killed almost instantly, most of them sailors on the pier 9 Allen, Robert L., The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U. S. Naval History. Berkeley: Heyday Books, Print. 10 Roaring Brook Press, Print. 11 Allen, Robert L., The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U. S. Naval History. Berkeley: Heyday Books, Print Roaring Brook Press, Print. 14

5 loading the bombs. The shrapnel from the blast was shot miles into the air, a plane flying at 9,000 feet saw a huge piece of the ship shoot up right next to them, then soar 15 upwards for thousands of feet. The explosion was so huge that many people thought that the naval base was getting bombed by the Japanese or that an earthquake was happening. The origin of the explosion was never officially discovered, due to the fact 16 that everyone close enough to realize what went wrong died in the explosion. The men that were working during the explosion were terrified of another explosion in the weeks after the devastating explosion. Everybody was scared, Percy Robinson later told researcher Robert L. Allen. If somebody dropped a box or slammed 17 a door, people [began] jumping around like crazy.. Their fear became the main defense argument at the trial for their lives several months later. In early August, the men were ordered to go back to loading ammunition at Mare Island (a different naval base), and the men of Division 4 suddenly stopped marching on 18 their way to the ships when their petty officer gave the order column left. Lieutenant Delucci, the officer in charge of Division 4, made everyone who refused to work step to 19 the left in a different column and wrote their name on a piece of paper. Later that day, men from other divisions also refused to load ammunition. Whenever questioned, all 257 men said they refused to load ammunition because they were afraid of another 15 Robbins, Michael W. "Port Chicago, California." Military History 30.4 (2013): History Reference Center. Web. 22 Nov Sheinkin, Steve. The Port Chicago 50 : Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. New York: Roaring Brook Press, Print.pg Andrews, Evan. "Port Chicago Disaster Stuns the Nation, 70 Years Ago." History.com. The History Channel, 17 July Web. 15 Nov Roaring Brook Press, Print. 19

6 catastrophic explosion. Later, during the court martial, almost all of the men that testified said that they were never given a direct order to go back to work. Ollie E. Green said during his testimony that The chaplain asked me was I willing to go work 20 and I told him, No sir., and that he didn t give me no order. Ollie Green was also excused from loading ammunition because of his broken wrist that was injured in the 21 explosion. Out of the 257 men that originally refused to load ammunition, 207 men eventually backed out when given chances from the military, and agreed that they would go back to loading ammunition. So only 50 men remained after this. Captain Goss was known to dislike black sailors and he insisted that these men 22 must have been influenced by outside propaganda and subversive influence. He made this statement in a report that he sent to Admiral Wright two days after the work 23 stoppage. The court marshall was determined to be public, so there were many reporters and newspapers allowed in the room. The Navy wanted it to be publicized to 24 warn other sailors that might also stage a mutiny or work stoppage. The head prosecutor was James Coakley, who felt extremely confident that he had a lock on this case before the trial even started. The head defender was Gerald E. Veltmann, who spent many days before the trial talking to and discussing the case with the defendants. The court marshall was to be held in a barracks that was emptied out, 20 Allen, Robert L., The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U. S. Naval History. Berkeley: Heyday Books, Print pg Roaring Brook Press, Print. 25

7 then filled with a table for all the judges to sit, rows of stands for the 50 alleged mutineers, tables for all of the lawyers and legal assistants, and rows of chairs on the 26 side for media reporters. There was no jury on this case, and the seven navy officers would decide whether each of the 50 men were guilty or not. The prosecution started with James Coakley calling forward many witnesses to the stand. Among these witnesses was Lieutenant Tobin, the man in charge of Division 4, the division with the most people that refused to work. He testified that as he was walking past the line of men that refused to work he heard someone say Let s all stick 27 together. They won t do anything to us. They won t even send us out to sea!. More officers testified similarly, but the judges ruled these claims as inadmissible- because the witness could not say exactly who said it, only that they overheard it. Some other witnesses were other sailors that had originally refused to load ammunition but balked and agreed to go back to work later. One of these men was Edward Johnson. When Coakley asked him about what the men were saying about the work stoppage in the barracks before it happened, he did not give the answer that Coakley wanted to hear. A reporter that was observing the trial described Coakley as visibly annoyed with his witness. Clearly, he d questioned Johnson in private before the trial, and now he was 28 having trouble getting the sailor to repeat the story the way he wanted it.. After every witness that Coakley brought to the stand, Veltmann got to cross examine him and ask 26 Roaring Brook Press, Print. 27 "MUTINY OF 50 NEGRO SEAMEN AIRED AT TRIAL." Port Arthur News 1 Oct. 1944: n. pag. Access Newspaper Archive. Web. 25 Jan Roaring Brook Press, Print. pg.116

8 some questions of his own. His strategy was to dampen all of Coakley s points by countering them with his own arguments or by proving them wrong. 29 His strategy proved to work throughout the trial, and it grew increasingly obvious that Coakley was 30 getting extremely agitated. As the trial went on, Thurgood Marshall sat by all the other reporters and observed, planning what he wanted to do next. He said Defense council are good and know what they are doing, prosecutor is vicious and dumb. There is no evidence of 31 mutiny.. He also talked with the 50 men and shared their concerns with some of the issues not brought up at the trial. While the defense was doing a good job, they failed to bring forward the biggest issues of the trial, the real reason the men refused to work. They never talked about the Navy s segregation policies, officers betting on what divisions could load the most ammunition, or the lack of training in loading ammunition. 32 When it was the defense's turn, Veltmann wanted to make sure that each of the 50 sailors got to make a case for themselves. He started with Joe Small, because he wanted to make sure that the judges were attentive during his testimony because he was the one that the prosecution was trying to label as the ringleader of the mutiny. But again and again during the cross-examination Joe Small would not be tricked into saying that he organized a mutiny or convinced others not to load ammunition.the 29 Roaring Brook Press, Print. pg Roaring Brook Press, Print. pg.30 32

9 defense also produced shocking evidence that the prosecutor had personally made death threats to at least one of the soldiers. During the testimony of Alphonso McPherson, one of the 50 charged mutineers, he testified that James F. Coakley had told him before the trial I m going to see to it that you get shot if you don t come clean. 33 He later repeated this claim to Coakley s face during cross-examination. Another sailor testified that while he was interrogated by the prosecution one of the officers said 34 that he was looking down the barrel of a gun. Weeks later, after each of the 50 men had testified, it was time for the judges to give the verdict. Somehow, the judges found every single man guilty of mutiny. This enraged civil rights activists everywhere, due to how painfully obvious it was that none of these men were guilty of mutiny. This was even more infuriating because the judges only spent 80 minutes deliberating. This means that they took roughly one and a half minutes to decide to sentence each man to dishonorable discharge from the Navy and years of hard labor in prison. Every one of the sailors knew that this trial was completely rigged. You can look all the way through there, Edward Waldrop said, read all fifty men s statements. You will find no way in there that the government really 36 proved that we mutinied.. But perhaps the most enraging piece of information was something that Gerald Veltmann said decades after the trial. He said that in between 33 Negro Defendant Charges Threat by Navy Officer. Cedar Rapids Gazette 5 Oct. 1944: n. pag. Access Newspaper Archive. Web. 8 Dec Roaring Brook Press, Print. 36 pg.144

10 court sessions he heard General Osterhaus say to another one of the judges We re 37 going to find them guilty. Thurgood Marshall was just as angry with this as the men that were sentenced. He had said during the trial that This is not 50 men on trial for mutiny, he declared. 38 This is the Navy on trial for its whole vicious policy toward Negroes. Thurgood Marshall also published a pamphlet entitled Remember Port Chicago as a way to try to give the Navy bad publicity from this mock-trial so they would change their policy toward 39 negroes. He also prepared an appeal to present to the court to try to get them to release the 50 men from prison. Although this appeal failed, eventually the Navy changed their policy on negroes in the Navy and let the 50 men out of prison. In February 1946, the month after the 50 were released the Navy officially eliminated all racial discrimination from the Navy by announcing Effective immediately, all restrictions governing types of assignments for which Negro personnel are eligible are hereby lifted. Henceforth they shall be eligible for all types of assignments, in all ratings in all facilities and in all ships In the utilization of housing, messing, and other facilities no special or 40 unusual provisions will be made for the accommodation of Negroes.. This was a huge victory not just for the 50 men that were being wrongly punished for something they didn t do, but for the interracial population as a whole. 37 pg Barry Bergman, Berkeley News July 10, 2014July 9, 2015, and Barry Bergman. "War, mutiny and Civil Rights: Remembering Port Chicago." Berkeley News. University of California Berkeley, 09 July Web. 13 Jan Allen, Robert L., The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U. S. Naval History. Berkeley: Heyday Books, Print. 40

11 The fifty African-American men that took a stand against the Navy s racial policies at Port Chicago in 1944 took a huge step in the nationwide Civil Rights Movement. Their actions were a major factor in the U.S. military being integrated, and without them, who knows where our country would be today? Their actions took a tremendous amount of courage and perseverance that few others at that time had. They demanded change, and they were not going to stop at anything until things were made right, and that is the true stand they took. They were not just protesting the way that they had to load ammunition, but protesting for the treatment of African-Americans everywhere. Annotated Bibliography Primary Sources Clancey, Patrick. "Port Chicago Naval Magazine: Court of Inquiry." Port Chicago Naval Magazine: Court of Inquiry. HyperWar, 23 Mar Web. 03 Jan This website provided portions of the actual trial transcript from the court marshall of the 50 accused men. It was the only place that I could actually read the transcript, which is otherwise very hard to find. The only other places I could find it were in the Naval Archives in New York and Washington D.C., so this was the best I could find for the actual trial transcript. "MUTINY OF 50 NEGRO SEAMEN AIRED AT TRIAL." Port Arthur News 1 Oct. 1944:

12 1. Access Newspaper Archive. Web. 8 Dec This article is from a newspaper in the town of Port Arthur that decided to run a story on the mutiny trial. While this article was fairly short and small, there were several good quotes in it that were very powerful and I didn t find anywhere else. Negro Defendant Charges Threat by Navy Officer. Cedar Rapids Gazette 5 Oct. 1944: n. pag. Access Newspaper Archive. Web. 8 Dec This is another article that was published during the time of the mutiny trial from the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It gave me some of my favorite quotes from the mutiny trial, and it helped tremendously when writing about what the 50 men had to say for themselves. Also, it showed me that this was a nationwide story because this article was published in Iowa, which is thousands of miles away from Port Chicago. Clancey, Patrick. "Port Chicago Naval Magazine: Court of Inquiry." Port Chicago Naval Magazine: Court of Inquiry. US National Archive, 23 Mar Web. 08 Dec This is a court trial transcript that I found online while at the Wisconsin Historical Society. It mostly talks about how the government will pay for all the damages done by the explosion, but I did find a place where, even decades later, the government still denies that it was any of the officers fault for not being properly trained in loading

13 ammunition. Secondary Sources Andrews, Evan. "Port Chicago Disaster Stuns the Nation, 70 Years Ago." History.com. The History Channell, 17 July Web. 15 Nov This is an article on the History Channel s website that talks about how the men felt after the big explosion. It gave some good quotes from some of the men involved. Sheinkin, Steve. The Port Chicago 50 : Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. New York: Roaring Brook Press, Print. This was the book that inspired me to choose this as my topic this year. It documents the entire story in an entertaining way, and is a great read even if I wasn t doing this project. Steve Sheinkin uses countless quotes from sailors, officers, judges, Thurgood Marshall and civilians. I learned so much about this topic from just this book, and it made the rest of research much easier. Allen, Robert L., The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U. S. Naval History. Berkeley: Heyday Books, Print.

14 This book also told the full story of these 50 men. Robert Allen tracked down and interviewed almost every single of the 50 mutineers. I couldn t access his actual interviews, but he uses plenty of quotes from them throughout this book. The Port Chicago 50 : Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights was actually inspired by Robert Allen s work interviewing and telling the story of the 50 accused men. Robbins, Michael W. "Port Chicago, California." Military History 30.4 (2013): History Reference Center. Web. 22 Nov I mostly used this website to learn more information about the actual explosion itself. Things like blast size, conditions of the ships, and even the types of bombs that were on the ships at the time. Wynn, Neil A. The Afro-American and the Second World War. New York: Holmes & Meier, Print. I found this book at the Wisconsin Historical Society. It described what the African-American situation was during World War ll as a whole. It raised some bigger issues and opened my eyes to the fact that there was even more segregation going on in the military than the Port Chicago Mutiny. Andrews, Evan. "Port Chicago Disaster Stuns the Nation, 70 Years Ago." History.com.

15 A&E Television Networks, 17 July Web. 12 Jan This article gave me information about the actual layout of the Port Chicago Naval Magazine. It also talked about what kind of ammunition and bombs the soldiers loaded. Barry Bergman, Berkeley News July 10, 2014July 9, 2015, and Barry Bergman. "War, mutiny and Civil Rights: Remembering Port Chicago." Berkeley News. University of California Berkeley, 09 July Web. 13 Jan This article on the University of California Berkeley s website was a good source of information because they had quotes from people like Thurgood Marshall that I couldn t find anywhere else. I also thought that they had good information about some general information about the topic as a whole, and it was one of the first sources I found.

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