The Port Chicago Disaster: The History of America’s Deadliest Homeland Incident during World War II By Charles River Editors Kindle Edition The Port Chicago Disaster: The History of America’s Deadliest Homeland Incident during World War II *Includes pictures *Includes accounts about the incident written by witnesses and survivors *Includes online references and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents “The fact that these men were wearing the uniform of the United States Navy made no difference.” Steve Sheinkin, The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights In World War II, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were killed across the world, whether in Japanese jungles, North African deserts, or European beaches. Given that backdrop, and the sheer magnitude of the war, people understandably became desensitized to incidents and tragedies that cost hundreds of lives. This was undoubtedly the case with the notorious Port Chicago disaster, a munitions explosion in July 1944 that killed over 300 people and injured over 300 , many of them Navy sailors. Since the explosion took place just a little over a month after D Day, not to mention the fact that a majority of the casualties were African American, little attention was paid to the tragedy. Among those who did, some believed the men had not been trained well enough, while others said that they were being pushed by their officers to race each other in work that should have been done slowly and carefully. The only thing everyone could agree on was that something went very wrong. If anything, the episode not only underscored the Navy’s segregation policies but also demonstrated just how pervasive racism was at the time. The disaster was so deadly that 15% of all African American Naval casualties in the war occurred on and around the dock in California that day, and while many appreciated the work the soldiers did, others denigrated their efforts. In fact, one shocking report contained the following slanderous remarks: These enlisted personnel were unreliable, emotional, lacked capacity to understand or remember orders or instructions, were particularly susceptible to mass psychology and moods, lacked mechanical aptitude, were suspicious of strange officers, disliked receiving orders of any kind, particularly from white officers or petty officers, and were inclined to look for and make an issue of discrimination. Because of the level of intelligence and education of the enlisted personnel, it was impracticable to train them by any method other than by actual demonstration. Many of the men were incapable of reading and understanding the most simple directions [T]he officers at Port Chicago have realized for a long time the necessity for great effort on their part because of the poor quality of the personnel with which they had to work. They worked loyally, conscientiously, intelligently, and effectively to make themselves competent officers and to solve the problem of loading ships safely with the men provided. In reality, it was not the mental incapacity of the sailors but the unsafe conditions they were exposed to that ultimately caused the disaster. In the wake of the accident, black sailors and civilians alike demanded change, to the extent that some around Port Chicago subsequently refused to load munitions on ships. While the “Port Chicago Mutiny” led to some arrests, the simmering tensions helped spur overall policy changes, and eventually the U.S. Navy began to desegregate its forces in early 1946. The Port Chicago Disaster: The History of America’s Deadliest Homeland Incident during World War II chronicles the story of the disaster and its aftermath. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Port Chicago disaster like never before, in no time at all.

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Includes pictures Includes accounts about the incident written by witnesses and survivors Includes online references and a bibliography for further reading Includes a table of contents The fact that these men were wearing the uniform of the United States Navy made no difference Steve Sheinkin The Port Chicago 50 Disaster Mutiny and the Fight for Civil Rights In World War II hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were killed across the world whether in Japanese jungles North African deserts or European beaches Given that backdrop and the sheer magnitude of the war people understandably became desensitized to incidents and tragedies that cost hundreds of lives This was undoubtedly the case with the notorious Port Chicago disaster a munitions explosion in July 1944 that killed over 300 people and injured over 300 many of them Navy sailors Since the explosion took place just a little over a month after D Day not to mention the fact that a majority of the casualties were African American little attention was paid to the tragedy Among those who did some believed the men had not been trained well enough while others said that they were being pushed by their officers to race each other in work that should have been done slowly and carefully The only thing everyone could agree on was that something went very wrong If anything the episode not only underscored the Navy s segregation policies but also demonstrated just how pervasive racism was at the time The disaster was so deadly that 15% of all African American Naval casualties in the war occurred on and around the dock in California that day and while many appreciated the work the soldiers did others denigrated their efforts In fact one shocking report contained the following slanderous remarks These enlisted personnel were unreliable emotional lacked capacity to understand or remember orders or instructions were particularly susceptible to mass psychology and moods lacked mechanical aptitude were suspicious of strange officers disliked receiving orders of any kind particularly from white officers or petty officers and were inclined to look for and make an issue of discrimination Because of the level of intelligence and education of the enlisted personnel it was impracticable to train them by any method other than by actual demonstration Many of the men were incapable of reading and understanding the most simple directions T he officers at Port Chicago have realized for a long time the necessity for great effort on their part because of the poor quality of the personnel with which they had to work They worked loyally conscientiously intelligently and effectively to make themselves competent officers and to solve the problem of loading ships safely with the men provided In reality it was not the mental incapacity of the sailors but the unsafe conditions they were exposed to that ultimately caused the disaster In the wake of the accident black sailors and civilians alike demanded change to the extent that some around Port Chicago subsequently refused to load munitions on ships While the Port Chicago Mutiny led to some arrests the simmering tensions helped spur overall policy changes and eventually the U. The port chicago disaster pdf summary S Navy began to desegregate its forces in early 1946 The Port Chicago Disaster The History of America s Deadliest Homeland Incident during World War II chronicles the story of the disaster and its aftermath Along with pictures of important people places and events you will learn about the Port Chicago disaster like never before in no time at all The Port Chicago Disaster The History of America s Deadliest Homeland Incident during World War IICharles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle Nook Kobo and Apple iBookstore provider of original content for third parties. The port chicago disaster pdf summary A Good Overview and a Story I Hadn t Heard BeforeThis book did a competent job of providing a brief description of the horrendous munitions explosion at Port Chicago California The main focus however was the aftermath among the primarily African American seamen They were ordered to take up duties with no time to grieve or recover themselves Their first order was to thoroughly clean up the affected area This consisted partly of picking up whatever pieces of their unfortunate fellow crewmen were left behind by the massive explosion Their second order was to immediately start loading ammunition on ships again with no leave time and no guarantee of safer working conditions When some of the sailors balked at this order they were called before a court martial and tried for mutiny The rest of their mostly unheard story is covered in this book. Book the port chicago disasters I should have heard this story before The fact that I did not says a lot about pre desegregation stories being hushed up and kept from the public eye I don t know how much readership these little books get but I am glad that at least the story is being told Kindle Edition Up until reading this little book I had never heard of this munitions disaster that occurred in 1944 More than 390 were injured and 320 were killed and the majority of the fatalities were African American which probably explains why it was left out of the history books from which I was taught Unsafe conditions and practices were the direct causes of the incident and then unequal treatment of the black survivors compared to the white ones surprise surprise fueled even anger and resentment This Charles Rivers Edition of the story served as a primer to whet my appetite for information but I m afraid it didn t do much than that It s disjointed confusing and repetitive Sometimes it was very difficult to tell who was reminiscing about the event and the sequence of events is very hard to follow Now that I ve been educated to the point that I know this incident happened I ll look to fulsome sources for further reading These short editions are a blessing for getting the ball rolling Kindle Edition Well you get what you pay for so I hate to give this such a low rating It was a free download and extremely short The biggest problem was that I wanted to read about the explosion itself I wanted insight into the cause and to know something about the over 300 sailors who lost their lives This book focused the aftermath and the subsequent mutiny of those who refused to go back to work because of safety concerns While the men were justified in their actions and the racial inequality of the time is shameful it was not what I expected to read about Kindle Edition

The Port Chicago Disaster: The History of America’s Deadliest Homeland Incident during World War II By Charles River Editors

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