The Navy on Wednesday exonerated 256 Black sailors found to be unjustly punished in 1944, after a deadly California port explosion revealed racial disparities in the military, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro announced.
The explosion, which took place exactly 80 years ago on July 17, 1944, at Port Chicago Naval Magazine outside San Francisco, killed 320 people and injured 400 others when munitions being loaded onto a cargo ship detonated.
After the blasts, white supervising officers at Port Chicago were given hardship leave while the surviving Black sailors — at the time, barred from nearly all seagoing jobs in a segregated force — were ordered back to work clearing debris and removing human remains from the critical World War II ammunition supply site.
As it was yet unknown what had caused the explosion and no changes had been made to improve safety, 258 Black sailors refused to resume ammunition handling. The Navy threatened disciplinary action, after which 208 of the men returned to work, but the service still subsequently convicted all 208 at a summary court-martial for disobeying orders.
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