The Port Chicago Mutiny

Chronicles the events surrounding the explosion of a U.S. munitions ship during World War II and the subsequent refusal of sailors to unload ammunition, detailing of the mutiny trials and the questions of racism that followed

One of the most egregious examples of racial discrimination and persecution in the U.S. military was the so-called mutiny at Port Chicago, Calif., in 1944. On July 17 at the naval ammunition depot there, an explosion rocked the area, killing 320 and injuring 390; most of the dead and injured were black Navy men who, in the segregated armed forces of the time, worked as stevedores loading explosives abroad ships, with no hope of transfer or ad vancement. After the blast, 258 enlisted men voiced either reluctance or refusal to return to their duties; 208 were court-martialed and 50 were found guilty of mutiny and given prison sentences of up to 15 years. Resurrecting the scandal, Allen ( Black Awakening in Capitalist America ) writes a gripping expose of a shocking injustice. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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.