{"id":76973,"date":"2024-07-17T20:14:06","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T20:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/07\/17\/navy-clears-black-sailors-unjustly-punished-after-1944-deadly-blast\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:30:47","slug":"navy-clears-black-sailors-unjustly-punished-after-1944-deadly-blast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2024\/07\/17\/navy-clears-black-sailors-unjustly-punished-after-1944-deadly-blast\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy clears Black sailors unjustly punished after 1944 deadly blast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/us-navy\">The U.S. Navy<\/a> has exonerated 256 Black sailors who were found to be unjustly punished in 1944 following a horrific port explosion that killed hundreds of service members and exposed <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/us-military-racism-discrimination-4e840e0acc7ef07fd635a312d9375413\">racist double standards<\/a> among the then-segregated ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On July 17, 1944, munitions being loaded onto a cargo ship detonated, causing secondary blasts that ignited 5,000 tons of explosives at Port Chicago naval weapons station near San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2023\/06\/09\/major-racial-disparities-exist-in-military-justice-system-report-says\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/academyracism6.jpg_a1eff3.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Major racial disparities exist in military justice system, report says<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The report highlighted three areas the Pentagon should remedy, including training and education, service member protections and oversight and transparency.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The explosion killed 320 sailors and civilians, nearly 75% of whom were Black, and injured another 400 personnel. Surviving Black sailors had to pick up the human remains and clear the blast site while white officers were granted leave to recuperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pier was a critical ammunition supply site for forces in the Pacific during <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/world-war-ii\">World War II<\/a>, and the job of loading those ships was left primarily to Black enlisted sailors overseen by white officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before the explosion, the Black sailors working the dock had expressed concerns about the loading operations. Shortly after the blast, they were ordered to return to loading ships even though no changes had been made to improve their safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sailors refused, saying they needed training on how to more safely handle the bombs before they returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What followed affected the rest of their lives, including punishments that kept them from receiving honorable discharges even as the vast majority returned to work at the pier under immense pressure and served throughout the war. Fifty sailors who held fast to their demands for safety and training were tried as a group on charges of conspiracy to commit mutiny and were convicted and sent to prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The whole episode was unjust, and none of the sailors received the legal due process they were owed, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said in an interview with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was \u201ca horrific situation for those Black sailors that remained,\u201d Del Toro said. The Navy\u2019s office of general counsel reviewed the military judicial proceedings used to punish the sailors and found \u201cthere were so many inconsistencies and so many legal violations that came to the forefront,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24199513653645.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-108575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24199513653645.jpg.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24199513653645.jpg.jpg?resize=300,225 300w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24199513653645.jpg.jpg?resize=768,576 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro signs documents exonerating 256 Black sailors who were unjustly court-martialed in 1944 after the horrific Port Chicago explosion in California, as Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven looks on, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at the Pentagon in Washington. (Tara Copp\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thurgood Marshall, who was then a defense attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, defended the 50 sailors who were convicted of mutiny. Marshall went on to become the first Black justice on the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, the 80th anniversary of the Port Chicago disaster, Del Toro signed paperwork officially clearing the sailors, who are now deceased. Del Toro handed the first pen to Thurgood Marshall Jr., the late justice&#8217;s son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exonerations \u201care deeply moving,\u201d Marshall Jr. said. \u201cThey, of course, are all gone, and that&#8217;s a painful aspect of it. But so many fought for so long for that kind of fairness and recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The events have stung surviving family members for decades, but an earlier effort in the 1990s to pardon the sailors fell short. Two additional sailors were previously cleared \u2014 one was found mentally incompetent to stand trial, and one was cleared on insufficient evidence. Wednesday\u2019s action goes beyond a pardon and vacates the military judicial proceedings carried out in 1944 against all of the men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis decision clears their names and restores their honor and acknowledges the courage that they displayed in the face of immense danger,\u201d Del Toro said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/pay-benefits\/2022\/02\/06\/some-military-families-of-color-report-racial-issues-affecting-career-decisions-new-poll-finds\/\" target=\"_blank\">The racism<\/a> that the Black sailors faced reflected the military\u2019s views at the time \u2014 ranks were segregated, and the Navy had only reluctantly opened some positions it considered less desirable to Black service members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The official court of inquiry looking into why the explosion occurred cleared all the white officers and praised them for the \u201cgreat effort\u201d they had to exert to run the dock. It left open the suggestion that the Black sailors were to blame for the accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Del Toro\u2019s action converts the discharges to honorable unless there were other circumstances surrounding them. After the Navy upgrades the discharges, surviving family members can work with the Department of Veterans Affairs on past benefits that may be owed, the Navy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surviving Black sailors of the Port Chicago explosion had to pick up human remains and clear the blast site while white officers were granted 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