BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AJR 33|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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