The black sailors at Port Chicago, in San Francisco Bay, were doing the only job they could in the navy in 1944, loading ammunition and bombs onto ships bound for war. With no training or safety precautions, it is not surprising that there was a major explosion. The surprise came when 50 of the sailors refused to return to that work, and were convicted of mutiny. Before Rosa Parks, before Jackie Robinson, before Brown v. Board of Education, there was Port Chicago.
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The Port Chicago 50