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AUGUSTA FOCUS BLACK HISTORY SUPPLEMENT © WINTER 1998
Ihe PURT CHICAGD. .
MUTI
By Monica Moorehead
This June will mark 53 years
since racist Jim Crow laws
were ‘abolished in the U.S.
Navy. Thislandmark decision
came as a result of many pro
tests, particularly those led by
African-American sailors.
Forinstance, atwo-day hun
ger strike was organized by
1,000 Black construction bat
talion workers — Seabees —
in March 1945 to protest
against racist conditions and
hiring practices. In December
1944, Black sailors stationed
in Guam armed themselves
against racist white Marines.
Then there was the heroic
Port Chicago Mutiny of 1944,
which led to the largest mass
mutiny trial in U.S. naval his
tory.
Slave conditions
According to Robert L.
Allen’s book, The Port Chi
cago Mutiny, an estimated one
million African Americans
served in the armed services
during World War 11, includ
ing 150,000 in the Navy. At
thetime, thearmed forces were
thoroughly segregated, asthey
were during World War 1.
Some of the Black men who
joined the Navy did so for pa
trioticreasons. But many more
joined hoping, in the long run,
to help bring about better con
ditions for themselves, their
impoverished families, and
their disenfranchised commu
nities.
Instead, most of their dreams
went up in smoke — literally.
Once in the Navy, the men
African Americans in Augusta history
1906, Boggs Academy
founded
1908- Boggs Academy, aprivate
academy for Blacks south of Au
gusta near Keysville and
Waynesboro, Ga., is established.
It is the only school for African
Americans in Burke County.
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Three hundred
and twenty
men had to die
under a racist
tyranny that led
to the biggest
mutiny trial
in U.S. naval
history.
found that, unlike their white
counterparts, they couldn’t rise
up inrank. Further, to accom
pany the bitter segregations,
they were relegated to the most
menial, degrading, and hard
workingjobsat slave wages. In
short, they were modern slaves
without the chains.
This was certainly true for
Port Chicago, a naval ammuni
tion base located on the Sacra
mento River, 30 miles north
east of San Francisco. Port
Chicago was the first pier in
U.S. history built for loading
and shipping ammunition, in
cluding dangerous explosives,
overseas.
Seventy-one white officers
were put in charge of over 1,400
Black sailors, who loaded the
ammunition in three round
1909, Lamar Hospital Nursing
Schoo_l Established
1809 - The Lamar Hospital School of
Nursing isstarted by educator Lucy Laney
in Lamar Hospital, an infirmary for blacks
located where Tabernacle Baptist Church
now stands on Laney-Walker Boulevard.
It was destroyed by fire in 1911. After the
fire,thesclwolwasmovedtoseveraltem-‘
porary locations: first, to Haines Insti-
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the-clock seven-hour shifts.
These enlisted men, many
barely out of high school, were
not made aware of the dangers
involvedin this work. Tomake
matters worse, the white offic
ers had no experience in han
dling ammunition. They ig
nored all the grievances
brought to their attention by
the Black enlistees.
Explosion changed
everything
And then a tragic explosion
of ammunition took place on
July 17, 1944 at 10:18 p.m.
Three hundred twenty men
were killed instantly —includ
ing 202 Black enlisted men.
Two hundred thirty-three
Black enlisted men were
among the 390 injured.
This disaster accounted for
15 percent of all Black naval
casualties during World War
IL
A Naval Court of Inquiry
was held four days later to
investigate the cause of the
explosion. The Navy found
the causeto be “incompetence”
on the part of the Black sea
men. The racist chain of com
mand was let completely off
the hook.
Congress introduced a bill
to grant the families of the
dead $5,000 compensation.
The arch-racist Mississippi
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lomar Hospital
tute, and then to the Pest House,
which opened after the Civil War as
Freedman’s Hospital.
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representative, John Rankin,
objected to the amount once
he found that most of the ben
eficiaries were Black. Con
gress buckled, under and re
duced the amount to $3,000.
Next stop:
work stoppage
On August 9, Black sailors
at Port Chicago staged a spon
taneous work stoppage, which
amounted to a mutiny. Two
hundred fifty-eight men were
imprisoned in a barge and kept
in cramped quarters similar to
the slave ships.
Following intense harass
ment and even death threats,
officers singled out 50 men as
the leaders of the mutiny.
Those men were put in soli
tary confinement at Camp
Shoemaker and eventually
charged with conspiring to
commit a mutiny. The other
208 men were quickly court
marshaled during individual
hearings at the same camp.
They were charged with refus
ing to obey orders.
The NAACP defense team
represented the 50 sailors. Its
chief counsel was Thurgood
Marshall, who eventually be
came the first African-Ameri
can Supreme Court Justice.
Originally published in the Feb. 23, 1995 issue of Worker's World, page five.
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The defense focused on
three aspects they felt de
served the most attention: the
use of Black seamen as slave
laborers in segregated in
stances; the unsafe conditions
at Port Chicago; and the un
fair manner in which the 50
were singled out.
After 32 days of hearings —
and only 80 minutes of delib
erations —the 50 men were
found guilty of organizing a
mutiny. They weresentenced
to 15 years in prison and re
ceived dishonorable dis
charges. Some of the sen
tences were reduced. The
other 208 defendants received
bad conduct discharges and
three months’ forfeiture of
pay.
While the NAACP lawyers
appealed the verdict, many
progressive Black and white
groups and individuals pro
tested the verdict, especially
in the Bay Area. The NAACP
organized its supporters to
write letters of protest in the
aftermath of the atomic bomb
ing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki; the Navy reduced
the sentences to 2 to 3 years.
InJune, 1945, the Navy an
nounced an end to segregated
training in its camps.
1912, Bethlehem Community
Center is founded
1912 - The Bethlehem Center is
founded by Mary Deßardeleben and the
Methodist Episcopal South Church. It
became the first social settlement for
Blacks in the nation. For years the cen
ter was the only place in Augusta that
provided a recreation program for Black
children. Its scouting program, formed
in 1941, was the first of its kind for
Black girls in the Augusta area.