Please add your voice to the growing numbers of those who seek exoneration for the fifty sailors wrongly convicted of mutiny by the Navy.

• In July 2022, U.S. Representative Mark DeSaulnier authored a measure to exonerate the Port Chicago 50 which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 329-to-101. The U.S. Senate then failed to pass the measure.
• In August 2022, the California State Legislature passed SJR-15, which calls on the federal government to provide full exoneration to the Port Chicago 50.
• In October 2022, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution supporting exoneration of the sailors.
• In December 2022, the City of Concord, CA passed a resolution in favor of exonerating the sailors. That same month, the City of Albany, CA passed a resolution to lead support for local, state, and federal exoneration efforts.
• The East Bay Regional Park District, the largest regional park district in the country, has long supported exoneration. In recent months, the Park District created a pamphlet tracing the history of the exoneration movement.
• The Contra Costa County Bar Association Port Chicago Task Force was formed in February 2022 to advocate for justice for the Port Chicago 50. The Task Force joins the longstanding efforts of Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Barbara Lee, Senator Steve Glazer, Assemblymember Timothy Grayson, Friends of Port Chicago National Memorial, NAACP, Citizens for Historical Equity, United Veterans Council and others to secure exoneration.
• The newly-named, 2500-acre Thurgood Marshall Regional Park – Home of the Port Chicago 50 in Concord, California will commemorate the pioneering role the sailors played in our nation's ongoing struggle for civil rights and will inspire future generations to continue to cry out for justice for the Port Chicago 50 and all of the sailors and their families affected by the Disaster and the Mutiny Trial.

History

On July 17, 1944, a cargo vessel exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in the San Francisco Bay Area, resulting in the deadliest home front disaster of World War II. 320 sailors, 202 of whom were African American, were killed in the explosion. The Navy was segregated, and all sailors loading munitions at the time of the explosion were African American. 

Many of the surviving sailors, believing Jim Crow segregation devalued the lives of African Americans and contributed to poor working conditions, refused to return to loading explosives until they could be provided with proper training, basic gear, and improvements to safety practices. Fifty of the sailors, now known as the Port Chicago 50, were threatened with death-by-firing-squad if they did not return to loading explosives, but they persisted. 

For their courageous stance, they faced a court martial and were convicted of mutiny in a military trial that was the only punishment the Navy imposed on anyone for the Port Chicago Disaster.

Civil Rights Heroes

As word of their heroics spread, a national appeal campaign on the sailors' behalf, led by NAACP's Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall, gained support from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt among others, and the sailors were quietly released from prison and returned to active duty in January 1946. One month later, as a result of intense public pressure, the Navy became the first branch of the military to end segregation.

Today, the collective actions of the brave sailors are now widely recognized as one of the catalysts of the modern civil rights movement. 

They Are Innocent

Decades after the trial, the Navy publicly released internal records revealing hazardous working conditions at the naval magazine violated federal safety laws and regulations, and the sailors should not have been punished for refusing unlawful orders. In fact, Naval historians now acknowledge the Port Chicago 50's courageous actions changed the U.S. Navy for the better and probably saved many lives.

After nearly 80 years, it's long past time for the Navy to restore honor and justice to the legacies of the brave sailors of Port Chicago through full exoneration.

Please sign and circulate the petition.

#PortChicago50  |  #JusticeForThe50  |  #ExonerateThe50

Learn more HERE.