Recovered History: Black Soldiers Strike During WWII

[dmr]

What a great find this is! This put a big smile on my face - that is, until - as I continued to read it, my heart dropped as I thought about the bravery, and the fear of wrath - something I can't even begin to imagine. And while some may say they won, they truly didn't.

From The Memory Hole an article entitled:
October, 1944 - The Tucson Strike (Black Soldiers Strike During WWII).

The Memory Hole reminds us this: "Keep in mind, WWII was still ongoing at this point, making this action even more radical than it already was."

[MADem]

1. Sailors did, too. And they had a valid reason.

They were loading ammo in dangerous circumstances, and their superior officers were assholes who used to bet on how fast their teams could load. Well, the end result was an explosion to end all explosions, and a shitload of people were killed.

Would you go back to work in that environment? I sure wouldn't.

Of course, they didn't call it a strike, they called it a MUTINY.

It's a fascinating story, and it involved a future Supreme Court Justice:

http://www.portchicagomutiny.com/history/history.html

[dmr]

2. We must exhonerate them. Who would I have to write to make this appeal?

I'll CC: President Obama, but is it the Secretary of the Navy? How about Senator Buris of Illinois? Any ideas?

Will anyone join me?

On Edit: the website has an action page: http://www.portchicagomutiny.com/campaign/campaign.html

[MADem]

3. Many of them didn't want pardons because they (rightly) believed they weren't guilty.

One of the guys took the pardon to encourage a "revisitation" of the event. Most of the people involved in the incident have passed on, but there are some who would like posthumous pardons to be issued. It's a Presidential thing, those pardons. SECNAV would be a copy to, because USN would be involved in the ceremonies.

Since Port Chicago is in CALIFORNIA (it was near San Francisco, actually) you'd want the CA legislative delegation involved.

[dmr]

4. Thanks for the info and the correction

I sat here wondering why this was being done in the midwest, I should have had my critical analysis hat on - it might've dawned on me!

I looked a little further and found an NBC movie made in 1999. I found a couple of VHS, and one German dvd for sale.

I wonder if the History Channel has done anything on either of these stories. I know they've done other stories, but I've never seen anything on the brutality of our actions towards Black servicemen. The stories usually gloss over that fact - like a dishonest fairy tale - and they all lived happily after ...

[Iterate]

5. Clinton issued pardons

in '98 or '99 for some or all of the still-living sailors, and as I remember it wasn't controversial. The pardon also had the positive effect of news stories recounting the events.

on edit -pardons for the Port Chicago disaster, not for the strike.

[dmr]

6. Really? The Mutiny web site says they have not.

Gonna have to research this further later today. I truly do want to do something if they have not been exonerated.

[Iterate]

7. no date on the site...

I wish more websites would include dates on the page...but they mention on "Sunday night" a made for TV movie about Port Chicago called "MUTINY", which was released in '98. Didn't know it they had made it.

I ran across a terrific book about it at the local library in the late '80's??, early '90's??.

Here it is, I think: The Port Chicago Mutiny, Robert L. Allen, 1993. At that time no one else had written about it - forgotten history I thought.

And here is a Clinton pardon link:
http://georgemiller.house.gov/rel122399.html

It looks like only one of the surviving sailors was pardoned, and the Navy still couldn't admit they had done anything wrong.

Thanks for the Tuscon strike info - I didn't know about it and will look for more. For all that those sailors put up with without complaint, it must have been just that much worse to cause them to strike.

[dmr]

8. I'm going to check my library, and thanks for the link

I had wondered about the age of the website, it looks like it came out of the late 90s.

I think I'm going to do some research about blacks during WWII, I remember hearing the treatment towards blacks was different during WWII, as opposed to WWI. I don't remember where I heard it, but treatment was supposedly worse during the Second, than the First. Have you ever heard anything like that?

[Iterate]

11. If that book hasn't been written, it should.

I don't recall any comparisons offhand. Good idea. I would guess that more has been written about the post-WWI and Wilsonian increase in racism than about blacks in the war itself. Most of what I know about the subject comes from British or French authors and documentaries.

Now that you've got me thinking about it I don't know where to begin. Maybe the bigger mobilization of WWII just created more opportunity both for excellence and racial conflict at the same time.

A lesser known story of WWII - in France the "redball express" was a most critical and dangerous 24/7 resupply effort that kept the front from complete collapse in the fall of '44. Most of the drivers were black and they took great pride in their accomplishment. I don't recall anything comparable in WWI.

[Brewman_Jax]

12. "The Invisible Soldier" by Mary Penick Motley

is the book you're looking for. It mostly covers the treatment of black soldiers, but has some entries on the Japanese-American soldiers that fought in WWII. I read it some years ago, and it's a fascinating read.

[MADem]

10. See below. Iterate is mistaken. Clinton issued one pardon to one man. The rest

I believe are now dead. There was some talk about a proclamation to exonerate the fifty, but the Navy was in dissaray and being led by a total asshole at the time (Mike Boorda had killed himself) and they dragged their feet, and the clock ran out.

It could still be done. It would be a nice thing to do, IMO.

A bit more info: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/wwIIbayarea/por.htm

[MADem]

9. Clinton issued a single pardon to a guy named Meeks who petitioned for one.

The bulk of the fifty "mutineers" though, did not feel they were mutinying when they said "I'm not going back to work in a situation where explosives have killed over three hundred people without safety assurances."

It was like a nuke went off--it was a massive explosion.


http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E3D91239F937A15751C1A96F958260&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

...At a memorial it opened at the site of the explosion in 1994, the National Park Service distributes literature describing the risks faced by the black sailors. One brochure acknowledges that for many Americans, the events at Port Chicago ''became a symbol of what was wrong with American society.''

But when the Navy reviewed the case in 1994, it declined to expunge the convictions. ''Sailors are required to obey the orders of their superiors,'' said William J. Perry, then secretary of defense, ''even if those orders subject them to life-threatening danger.''

In granting the pardon yesterday, the president noted that Mr. Meeks had been one of those who engaged in the ''extraordinarily difficult job'' of recovering human remains after the explosion, had completed his military service after imprisonment and had then become a ''stable, law-abiding and productive citizen'' as a civilian.

After conviction, Mr. Meeks, a seaman second class, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. But, like many of the others convicted, he was released after serving 17 months. The men then rejoined regular Navy units and, except for those who committed later offenses, eventually left the service ''under honorable conditions,'' a somewhat lesser status than that conferred by an honorable discharge.

Over the decades, memory of the Port Chicago episode faded. Some of the men, like Mr. Meeks, later said they had wanted to do nothing to draw attention to what they felt was the shame of having been branded mutineers.

Then, in the 1980's, the story began re-emerging...Most of those sailors were dead by the time the law firm of Morrison & Foerster filed a petition seeking a pardon for Mr. Meeks last June. The firm said Mr. Meeks was the only one of perhaps three survivors who had wanted to file.

Although he has been suffering from severe health problems in recent years, Mr. Meeks said yesterday that he had always believed he would live long enough to enjoy the pardon and the largely symbolic victory...''I knew God was keeping me around for something to see,'' he said. ''But I am just sorry so many of the others are not around to see it.''

Indeed, although the pardon was issued in his name alone, he seemed to want to share it with 49 other men. ...