Title: Recognizing the victims of the Port Chicago explosion of July 17, 1944, the 75th anniversary of the greatest homeland loss of life of World War II, and exonerating the 50 African-American sailors unjustly court-martialed by the Navy.
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security

Summary:
This resolution recognizes the service and sacrifice of those who served and perished at Port Chicago Naval Magazine, in California, during World War II. The resolution exonerates the 50 Port Chicago sailors convicted of the charge of mutiny against the United States and all other charges brought against them after the July 17, 1944, explosion that killed 320. It upgrades the general and summary discharges of the Port Chicago sailors to honorable discharges.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 49 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 49

Recognizing the victims of the Port Chicago explosion of July 17, 1944, 
the 75th anniversary of the greatest homeland loss of life of World War 
  II, and exonerating the 50 African-American sailors unjustly court-
                         martialed by the Navy.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 11, 2019

 Mr. DeSaulnier (for himself and Ms. Lee of California) submitted the 
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Recognizing the victims of the Port Chicago explosion of July 17, 1944, 
the 75th anniversary of the greatest homeland loss of life of World War 
  II, and exonerating the 50 African-American sailors unjustly court-
                         martialed by the Navy.

Whereas the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Contra Costa County, California, was 
        a vital supply facility for the Navy during World War II, shipping 
        ordinance for use in the Pacific Theater;
Whereas under the rules governing the Navy at the time, the Port Chicago Naval 
        Magazine was operated as a segregated facility in which undertrained and 
        poorly equipped African-American sailors, under the supervision of White 
        officers, exclusively conducted the hazardous task of loading munitions 
        aboard ships;
Whereas there had been numerous complaints and warnings about the unsafe nature 
        of the loading operations, including the conduct of contests by White 
        officers to achieve the most rapid loading of ships despite the inherent 
        dangers involved in such actions;
Whereas on the night of July 17, 1944, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine and much 
        of the town of Port Chicago were destroyed by a cataclysmic explosion 
        that killed 320 men, 202 of whom were African-American enlisted men;
Whereas these losses on a single night represented one-fifth of all African-
        American naval casualties during World War II;
Whereas following the catastrophe, none of the African-American survivors was 
        provided survivor leave or other recuperative services provided to the 
        White personnel, including the officers;
Whereas African-American survivors of the explosion were ordered back to the 
        Port Chicago site to conduct cleanup operations;
Whereas on August 9, 1944, with no cause having been determined for the 
        explosion and no additional training having been provided to the 
        African-American loaders, 328 men from three divisions were ordered to 
        the loading pier at the nearby Mare Island, which served as the Port 
        Chicago replacement facility;
Whereas many of the men expressed concern about the inadequacy of safety 
        procedures and training, leading to 258 being arrested and confined for 
        three days on a large barge tiered to the pier;
Whereas the confined sailors were threatened with prosecution and potential 
        execution, leading 208 to return to work;
Whereas the 50 who refused to return to loading operations were subjected to the 
        largest mass mutiny trial in naval history, which resulted, on October 
        24, 1944, in a conviction on the charge of mutiny and a sentence of up 
        to 15 years imprisonment and dishonorable discharge from the Navy;
Whereas after appeals and widespread protests in January 1946, which included 
        the participation of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and 
        former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Port Chicago men were released 
        from prison but their convictions remained on their records;
Whereas in a 1994 investigation, the United States Navy stated that ``there is 
        no doubt that racial prejudice was responsible for the posting of only 
        African-American enlisted personnel to loading divisions at Port 
        Chicago'';
Whereas the unfairness of the Port Chicago mutiny prosecution would ultimately 
        serve as one of the catalysts for the 1948 Executive Order requiring 
        desegregation of the Armed Services;
Whereas the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives 
        conducted hearings on the Port Chicago case in 1993 and, in 1994, 
        Congress, on a bipartisan basis, passed legislation creating the Port 
        Chicago National Memorial as a feature of the National Park Service, 
        including plaques commemorating those who lost their lives at the site 
        in 1944;
Whereas in 1999, a pardon was granted to one of the few surviving members of the 
        Port Chicago 50, Freddie Meeks, by President William Clinton following a 
        thorough review of the case;
Whereas since 1999, substantial legal, academic, and journalistic inquiry has 
        documented the inherent racial motivation behind the operations at Port 
        Chicago and the prosecution of the Port Chicago 50;
Whereas on December 16, 2015, the Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Ray 
        Mabus, wrote to the President ``strongly support[ing] executive action 
        in favor of the 49 remaining Sailors with general court-martial 
        convictions or the 207 with summary court-martial convictions . . . in 
        light of the well documented challenges associated with uniformed 
        service by African Americans during that era.'';
Whereas in 2000, Congress approved S.J. Res. 26 to exonerate Captain Charles B. 
        McVay III, captain of the USS Indianapolis, for his wrongful court 
        martial, and President William Clinton signed that resolution on October 
        30, 2000;
Whereas the language of that resolution was enacted as section 545 of the Floyd 
        D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 
        (Public Law 106-398), including language that Captain McVay's military 
        record ``should now reflect that he is exonerated for the loss of the 
        USS Indianapolis and so many of her crew''; and
Whereas on July 17, 2019, the Nation will mark the 75th anniversary of the Port 
        Chicago disaster, and the unjust and racially motivated convictions 
        remain on the records of the Port Chicago 50: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) recognizes the service and sacrifice of those who 
        served and perished at Port Chicago during World War II;
            (2) hereby and forever exonerates the Port Chicago sailors 
        of the charge of mutiny against the United States and any and 
        all other charges brought against them in the aftermath of the 
        July 17, 1944, explosion;
            (3) upgrades the general and summary discharges issued to 
        each of the Port Chicago sailors to honorable discharges; and
            (4) directs the Secretary of the Navy to place a letter 
        attesting to these actions in the file of each of the Port 
        Chicago sailors and to notify any surviving family members of 
        these actions.
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