The Port Chicago mutiny: after a deadly blast, 50 black sailors refused to return to work--and went to jail instead.

• Author: Price, Sean
• Position: Times past - Brief Article

You didn't say no. It was the wartime Navy, and you didn't defy the lieutenant--especially if you were black and he was white.

But Joe Small said no anyway. After an explosion killed 320 people in Port Chicago, California, he and 49 other black sailors refused to return to the dangerous work of loading ammunition onto ships. The Navy jailed them for mutiny. But their refusal helped propel the U.S. armed services toward racial justice.

When the U.S. entered World War IT in 1941, the armed forces were still segregated. African-Americans had to serve in all-black units led by white officers. Blacks had little hope of promotion and were usually given the dirtiest, most thankless jobs.

At Port Chicago, a U.S. Navy ammunition facility just 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, black sailors were given the job of loading explosives onto cargo ships bound for the battle front. Many of them complained about the danger, but they were ignored. So were the Coast Guard and professional dock workers when they pointed out that no one at Port Chicago had been trained to handle explosives.

At 10:19 p.m. on July 17, 1944, two ships were tied up at the Port Chicago dock. One was full of ammunition, the other set to be loaded. Suddenly there were two huge explosions. Sailor Floyd Scott told The New York Times that the first blast shook the building he was in

like a terrier shakes a rat. I managed to get to my feet and started out the door when there was a second explosion and I saw the barracks go down and [heard] the sound of men screaming.

Sailors thought the Japanese had attacked. But it soon appeared that the blasts had been either an accident or sabotage. No one knows which, because the 320 men closest to the blast were killed, 202 of them black sailors. Another 390 were hurt. It was the war's worst home-front disaster.

On August 9, the surviving sailors were ordered into place to resume the loading. Sailor Joe Small recalled:

When the lieutenant gave the command, "Column...