BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AJR 33| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONSENT Bill No: AJR 33 Author: Bonilla (D) and Thurmond (D), et al. Amended: 5/5/16 in Assembly Vote: 21 SENATE VETERANS AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/14/16 AYES: Nielsen, Hueso, Allen, Nguyen, Roth ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/5/16 - See last page for vote SUBJECT: Port Chicago disaster: African American Sailors of the United States Navy SOURCE: Author DIGEST: 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. ANALYSIS: This resolution makes the following legislative findings: 1) 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. AJR 33 Page 2 2) This single disaster accounted for more than 15 percent of all African American naval casualties during World War II. 3) After the disaster, 258 African American survivors 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. 4) 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." 5) 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. 6) 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. 7) 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. AJR 33 Page 3 8) 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. 9) 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." 10)White officers would encourage African American sailors to compete while loading ammunition and explosives while those officers placed bets among themselves. 11)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. 12)White officers were permitted to go home for 30-day leaves. 13)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. 14)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. 15)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 AJR 33 Page 4 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." 16)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. 17)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. 18)In 1999, Freddie Meeks was pardoned by 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." 19)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. 20)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 AJR 33 Page 5 freedom abroad and equality at home." 21)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. Related/Prior Legislation SR 69 (Glazer, 2016) urges the President and Congress of the United States to exonerate, clear the records of restore honor to, and rectify federal military mistreatment of, African-American sailors unjustly convicted of mutiny regarding the 1944 Port Chicago disaster. This resolution is pending on Senate Third Reading. SJR 21 (Wright, Resolution Chapter 47, Statutes of 2010) memorialized Congress and the President to vindicate the sailors unjustly blamed for and convicted of mutiny following the Port Chicago disaster, and to rectify any related mistreatment. FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.:NoLocal: No SUPPORT: (Verified6/15/16) 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 individual AJR 33 Page 6 OPPOSITION: (Verified6/15/16) None received ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/5/16 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon NO VOTE RECORDED: Beth Gaines, Jones-Sawyer Prepared by:Wade Cooper Teasdale / V.A. / (916) 651-1503 6/15/16 17:24:43 **** END ****