[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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