BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
Senator Jim Nielsen, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AJR 33 Hearing Date: 6/14/16
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |Bonilla |
|-----------+-----------------------------------------------------|
|Version: |5/5/16 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Urgency: | |Fiscal: |No |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant:|Wade Teasdale |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Port Chicago disaster: African American Sailors of
the United States Navy
DESCRIPTION
Summary:
This resolution urges the Congress of the United States to
publicly exonerate the 50 African American sailors of the United
States Navy, who were inappropriately tried for and convicted of
mutiny in connection with the Port Chicago Naval Magazine
incident (July 1944), and to retroactively convert the general
discharge granted to each of those sailors to an honorable
discharge.
COMMENT
1)Legislative Findings :
a) The deadliest home-front disaster of World War II
occurred at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Concord,
California, on July 17, 1944, when an explosion at the
naval facility killed or wounded 710 people, 435 of whom
were African American.
b) This single disaster accounted for more than 15 percent
of all African American naval casualties during World War
II.
c) After the disaster, 258 African American survivors of
AJR 33 (Bonilla) Page 2
of ?
the explosion refused to resume the loading and unloading
of ammunition at the naval facility, citing inadequate
training and the use of unsafe practices.
d) According to a United States Navy report, "the actual
work of loading ammunition and explosives aboard the ships
was performed exclusively by Afro-Americans under the
supervision of white officers and Afro-American petty
officers" and "the routine assignment of Afro-American
enlisted personnel to manual labor was clearly motivated by
race and premised upon the mistaken notion that they were
intellectually inferior and thus incapable of meeting the
same standards as their white counterparts."
e) One of the ships was loaded with around 4,600 tons of
ammunition and high explosives, some of which weighed 650
pounds with activating mechanisms or fuses installed.
f) At that time there was no formal training in safe
methods of ammunition handling given to enlisted men, and
the United States Navy failed to adequately provide these
men with the tools necessary to operate under safe working
conditions, even after the explosion occurred.
g) Weeks before the explosion, the longshoremen's union
warned the United States Navy that there would be a
disaster if the Navy continued to use untrained seamen to
load ammunition and offered to send experienced
longshoremen to train Navy recruits in safe handling of
ammunition, but this offer from the union was ignored by
the United States Navy.
h) Subsequent research has confirmed the use of unsafe
ammunition loading methods at the naval facility at the
time and has recognized the existence of pervasive racial
prejudice in the United States Navy during World War II.
i) As documented in the book "The Port Chicago Mutiny" by
Dr. Robert L. Allen, a worker described Port Chicago as a
"slave outfit," adding that "we were considered a cheap
labor force from the beginning."
j) White officers would encourage African American sailors
to compete while loading ammunition and explosives while
AJR 33 (Bonilla) Page 3
of ?
those officers placed bets among themselves.
aa) Following the explosion, many of the African
American survivors expected to be granted survivors' leave
before being reassigned to regular duty, but that leave was
not granted, even for those who had been hospitalized, and
all African American men were sent back to work loading
ammunition under the same officers as before.
bb) White officers were permitted to go home for
30-day leaves.
cc) Fifty sailors of the United States Navy, all
African American men, ultimately were tried and convicted
of mutiny for failing to obey orders to resume loading
activities.
dd) A mutiny is active revolt with the intent of
taking charge, but a refusal to work is a passive act of
resistance without intent to seize power.
ee) Thurgood Marshall, then a chief counsel for
the NAACP, was reported to state he saw no reason why the
men should be tried for mutiny, which implies a mass
conspiracy, rather than on lesser charges of individual
subordination and blasted the trial by stating that the
defendants were being tried for mutiny "solely because of
their race and color."
ff) The United States Navy has concluded that
there can be "no doubt that racial prejudice was
responsible for the posting of Afro-American enlisted
personnel to the loading divisions at Port Chicago," and
similar racial prejudicial bias has been documented in the
conduct of the trial that resulted in the court-martial of
the sailors at Port Chicago.
gg) Virtually all of the convicted sailors were
released from prison early in 1946 and were given a general
discharge from the Navy "under honorable conditions," and
the United States Navy announced at the time that race
would no longer be a factor in filling its jobs.
hh) In 1999, Freddie Meeks was pardoned by
AJR 33 (Bonilla) Page 4
of ?
President Bill Clinton in recognition of the injustice he
suffered as one of the convicted sailors, and at the time
of his pardon, Mr. Meeks said, "After all these years, the
world should know what happened at Port Chicago. It should
be cleared up that we did not commit mutiny, and we were
charged with that because of our race."
ii) In 2003, the National Park Service dedicated
the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial at the
disaster site, which serves not only as a tribute to the
320 men who died in that World War II explosion, but also
as an acknowledgment of that event as the touchstone for
desegregation in the military and the beginning of civil
rights for all Americans.
jj) In a July 17, 2014, letter recognizing the
70th anniversary of the tragedy, President Barack Obama
acknowledged the African American sailors at Port Chicago,
stating, "Faced with tremendous obstacles, they fought on
two fronts - for freedom abroad and equality at home."
aaa) All of the sailors involved in the Port
Chicago cases have passed away, but their family members
and friends continue to request that the sailors be cleared
of all charges.
1)Resolves :
a) That the Legislature respectfully urges the recognition
that the trial and conviction of the 50 African American
sailors of the United States Navy for mutiny in connection
with their service at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in
Concord, California, during World War II were wrongfully
pursued because of racial prejudice, as evidenced by the
racial bias in the United States Navy's original findings
in their cases and the different treatment afforded to the
convicted sailors' white counterparts and officers.
b) That the Legislature respectfully urges the Congress to
publicly exonerate the 50 sailors in order to further aid
in healing the racial divide that continues to exist in the
United States.
c) That the Legislature respectfully urges the Congress to
AJR 33 (Bonilla) Page 5
of ?
retroactively convert each sailor's general discharge to an
honorable discharge.
2)Related/Prior Legislation :
SR 69 (Glazer, Hall, Huff, and Mitchell, 2016) urges recognition
that the trial and conviction of the 50 African American sailors
of the United States Navy for mutiny regarding the Port Chicago
incident were wrongfully pursued because of racial prejudice,
and urges the Congress of the United States to publicly
exonerate those sailors in order to further aid in healing the
racial divide that continues to exist in the United States.
Pending on Senate Third Reading.
SJR 21 (Wright, Resolution Chapter 47, Statutes of 2010)
memorializes the Congress and President of the United States to
act to vindicate the sailors unjustly blamed for, and the
sailors convicted of mutiny following, the Port Chicago
disaster, and to rectify any mistreatment by the military of
those sailors.
POSITIONS
Sponsor: Author.
Support:
American G.I. Forum of California
American Legion - Department of California
AMVETS - Department of California
California Association of County Veterans Service Officers
California State Commanders Veteran Council
Military Officers Association of America - California Council of
Chapters
Veterans of Foreign Wars - Department of California
Vietnam Veterans of American - California State Council
One (1) individual
Oppose: None on file.
-- END --
AJR 33 (Bonilla) Page 6
of ?