Port Chicago Mutiny - Softcover

Allen, Robert L.

3.95

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Softcover

ISBN 10: 1567430104 ISBN 13: 9781567430103

Publisher: HarperPB, 1993

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During World War II, Port Chicago was a segregated naval munitions base on the outer shores of San Francisco Bay. Black seamen were required to load ammunition onto ships bound for the South Pacific under the watch of their white officers--an incredibly dangerous and physically challenging task.

On July 17, 1944, an explosion rocked the base, killing 320 men--202 of whom were black ammunition loaders. In the ensuing weeks, white officers were given leave time and commended for heroic efforts, whereas 328 of the surviving black enlistees were sent to load ammunition on another ship. When they refused, fifty men were singled out and charged--and convicted--of mutiny. It was the largest mutiny trial in U.S. naval history. First published in 1989, The Port Chicago Mutiny is a thorough and riveting work of civil rights literature, and with a new preface and epilogue by the author emphasize the event's relevance today.

Published in collaboration with the Equal Justice Society

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About the Author:

Robert L. Allen is the author of The Port Chicago Mutiny (Amistad 1993) and co-editor of Brotherman (35,000 hc net), which won the American Book Award. Allen is a professor of African American and Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and is an editor of The Black Scholar. He lives in San Francisco, CA.

From Library Journal:

Allen sifts through the carnage of what he calls "the worst home-front disaster of World War II"--the July 17, 1944 explosion at the Navy's Port Chicago ammunition base just north of San Francisco that killed 320 men, 202 of whom were black ammunition loaders. In the aftermath, the 258 survivors refused to continue loading munitions, and 50 were charged with mutiny and court-martialed. Allen, a sociologist and journalist, uses interviews and analysis of the conditions and trials to defend the mutineers--all of whom were black. The case he builds indicts the nation and the segregated Navy for relegating blacks to loading duty without the proper training and safeguards. Scholars may cavil about the lack of reference notes and the expansive argument, but the clear and chilling story highly recommends itself for Afro-American, legal, and military collections.
- Thomas J. Davis, SUNY at Buffalo
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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