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    The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
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    The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
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    The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights

    Written by Steve Sheinkin

    Narrated by Dominic Hoffman

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    An astonishing civil rights story from Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin.

    On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away. On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed. When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution. This is a fascinating story of the prejudice that faced black men and women in America's armed forces during World War II, and a nuanced look at those who gave their lives in service of a country where they lacked the most basic rights.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 21, 2014
    ISBN9780804167437
    Unavailable
    The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
    Author

    Steve Sheinkin

    Steve Sheinkin is the acclaimed author of fast-paced, cinematic nonfiction histories, including Fallout, Undefeated, Born to Fly, The Port Chicago 50, and Bomb. His accolades include a Newbery Honor, three Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards, a Sibert Medal and Honor, and three National Book Award finalist honors. He lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, with his wife and two children.

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    Reviews for The Port Chicago 50

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    • 5/5
      Excellent telling of the abuse of blacks in the Navy during World War II. It was a Rosa Parks event that has been given little attention despite the changes in stimulated.
    • 5/5
      Incredible story about a time and place not far from here--the inland San Francisco Bay. In 1944 a massive explosion killed 320 service men, 202 of them were black sailors who'd been loading ammunition. What comes next is a charge of mutiny and a fight for civil rights. This book brings history alive, and you may wonder why you have never heard of this disaster.
    • 3/5
      This book tells the true story of segregation in the Navy during World War II. African Americans who joined the Navy to serve their country were not allowed to serve on ships. People thought they weren't smart or brave enough. But only the black men were given the job of loading ammunition onto the ships. This was a dangerous job and the men weren't even give the proper training. The officers bet on their crews to see who could load the fastest. Inevitably, an explosion occurred and many men were inured or killed. When the African American sailors decided they would not load ammunition unless conditions changed, they were charged with mutiny and told they could be shot. This book is part of my son's 8th grade English curriculum, so I decided to read the book along with him. I wasn't even aware of this story and I'm glad that I had the chance to read it. The author does a good job of describing the events that led up to the explosion and the actions of the sailors and the Navy afterwards. It is a bit dry at times, but it's a nonfiction story, so what do you expect. My son found it boring, but then again, he is not a fan of history or even reading (except for graphic novels or spy type stories). This is a great book for schools to use in English or History classes.
    • 3/5
      A YA non-fiction survey of this horrible Navy disaster at Port Chicago, in San Francisco Bay, CA. Definitely written for younger readers, Sheinkin follows the African American Navy men who were assigned the dangerous duty of unloading/loading ammunition, & after the terrible explosion, commanded to once more commence loading ammunition. 50 stalwart seamen refused - setting off a military court investigation & charges of mutiny for all 50, a growing media scrutiny of the overt discriminatory practices of the US Navy, & the involvement of the famous Thurgood Marshall, who appealed the men's "guilty" sentence all the way to the Secretary of the Navy himself, James Forrestal. His appeal was rejected but the Secretary knew discriminatory practices were hurting the Navy. By the end of WWII, this military branch began to integrate the men, black & white, on ships, and assign other races besides blacks to the dangerous ammunition job, among others. Built on the details of the men's experiences first coming to Port Chicago, the explosion and aftermath, the day the men refused to march down to the dock and start loading again, & the subsequent actions of the Naval officers and court. May become "dry" history by end of the story, but Sheinkin does a good job of using the men's words themselves, recalling what they heard, said and felt. Would be a great historical event for social studies classes to study, especially on African American History month!
    • 4/5
      a very fast read, but interesting and gripping to see how the Navy treated blacks in the past, primarily during WWII.
    • 5/5
      Excellent! Highly recommend if you like history, or even just like learning about how we (USA) treated African Americans in WWII days. It's an amazing story, one I hope we never ever repeat; and yet, today's world is much the same. Ferguson, Freddie Gray... and Port Chicago 50 shows how little has changed.
    • 5/5
      An excellent, compelling work of nonfiction chronicling a little-known historical event that the author convincingly portrays as an early milestone in the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement.
    • 5/5
      Hands down the best nonfiction book I've read all year, maybe even in a few years! I was soo enamored with this book that I finished it in under two hours. I simply could not put it down! The Port Chicago 50 talked about an event in history that I literally had no idea about, the largest mutiny trial in naval history and at the time one of the largest man made explosions history. The tagline for the novel sums it up, "Disaster, Mutiny, and the fight for Civil Rights." During the first half of the twentieth century all the United States armed forces units were segregated, including the Navy. Black men could join but they generally could not fight, they were relegated to doing all the cooking cleaning, loading, etc., because they were considered "unfit" for combat. At the start of WWII many black men signed up only to be disappointed that German POW's got better treatment then they did. This book focuses on a few units of all black Navy sailors who had the task of loading ammunition onto Naval ships. They had no training handling bombs, incendiary devices, and ammunition and it was only a matter of time before something disastrous happened. The higher ranked white sailors had all received several weeks worth of training but they weren't the ones handling the millions of pounds of bombs, their version of monitoring safety and supervising the black sailors included placing bets on which team could load the fastest. In this unsafe environment it came as no surprise that disaster inevitably struck. One night two explosions went off; sinking two massive Navy tankers and killing nearly 400 people (most of whom were black), the blast was soo massive that over a mile away windows were blown out and nearly 700 people were injured by flying glass and debris. Instead of learning from their mistakes, the Navy sent the remaining black sailors to another port to learn ammunition.... still with no training. Joe Small and 49 other black men refused to go back to work until they were given training and safety precautions, the Navy refused and tried all men with mutiny. This is their story and it needs to be heard. Before Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, and other Civil Rights heroes, there were these men who stood up to injustice and helped change the course of history.An absolute must read, I can't recommend this book enough!
    • 5/5
      Great non-fiction account of events that occurred during World War II. Follows the racism that existed in the Navy during this time and tragic events that led to mutiny charges being filed against fifty African American servicemen. This event led to changes in the way the military viewed the service of minorities and caught the attention of Thurgood Marshall. Were these men wrong to refuse to handle dangerous explosives after 320 of their group were killed in an accident? Why were only black sailors handling these dangerous weapons? Did they receive a fair trial from the military court? An interesting look into a questionable period of our history.
    • 5/5
      The Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin is a young adult nonfiction history of the Port Chicago explosion and its aftermath.Port Chicago, California, near Martinez along the southern coast of Suisun Bay, was a navy base and town that served as the shipping point for live munitions during WWII. Black men who wanted to serve their country were stationed at places like this, doing jobs their white counterparts were too scared to perform.On July 17, 1944 a massive explosion killed 300 people and leveled a large portion of naval yard. Among the survivors, 244 men, decided working conditions were too unsafe and they refused to return to work. Fifty of those men were singled out and charged with mutiny.The Port Chicago 50 covers an important piece of domestic WWII, and early Civil Rights history. It's a piece that has been overlooked and ignored in history books and shouldn't be.
    • 5/5
      During WWII the Navy was segregated. Black soldiers were given tasks such as loading munitions. The conditions were dangerous. This book explores the experiences of African-American soldiers in the Navy stationed at Port Chicago. Their task was to load munitions on boats with no training and no safety protocols. After an explosion, many of the soldiers would not continue to load munitions. This group - known as the Port Chicago 50 - was court-martialed and tried for mutiny. The case became high profile and eventually laid the ground work for the desegregation in the military. Carefully researched and written in an accessible way, the book shares the stories of a specific group of soldiers while demonstrating the importance of their story in the larger context of WWII America and the armed forces.
    • 3/5
      Wow. I had heard references to this event but had never had anyone put it in context for me. While not as dynamic as Steve Sheinkin's Bomb he does an amazing job explaining the actions and behaviors that most likely led to the tragedy and how it affected the Navy's policy of segregation in World War II and illustrating how it pushed desegregation forward. It's an important event that everyone should learn about especially in light of the current tragedies in Ferguson and around the country. I think it might help put things in perspective of how many steps back we're taking right now.
    • 4/5
      middlegrade narrative nonfiction; civil rights/ww2 history. An important story that I'm glad I read. I hope this gets at least an honor award.
    • 4/5
      This honestly didn't grab me, I think because a) meh, war stories, and b) I've read so many civil rights books that the surprising moments were (unfortunately) not at all surprising to me. That said, 7th-10th graders likely won't have that problem, and if they think a book about the appalling racism of the military sounds intriguing, this is an excellent one!
    • 5/5
      Spellbinding true story of an important chapter in history. During World War II, black men were only allowed to load munitions, cook and clean. They were told to load as quickly as possible and and even pitted against each other. The men were never giving any training in the safe handling of bombs. One night a ship loaded with bombs blew up killing many men. The water was strewn with body parts. It was the biggest explosion that had ever occurred in history. Eventually they sent the men back to loading munitions. They were terrified. The men refused and after being given a severe talking to with the threat of execution, all but 50 went back to loading. Eventually they were unfairly tried and found guilty of mutiny and were to be executed. Thurgood Marshall got behind the cause and while they were not put to death, they remained guilty of munity. Several asked for a pardon which president Clinton granted, but most said they didn't wasn't to be pardoned for something they hadn't done. The 50 have all passed away, but their bravery lives on.
    • 4/5
      The Port Chicago Fifty tells the story of fifty Navy enlisted African American sailors who stood up for equality and safer working conditions during World War II. By opening this book with the attention-grabbing tale of Dorie Miller’s heroic deeds during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sheinkin sets the stage for the challenges the Port Chicago men would face. Miller worked as a mess attendant, saved several people and took down an enemy plane with no training, was awarded the Navy Cross, but then went back to being a mess attendant simply because he was African American. The Port Chicago Fifty expands upon the story of several of the African American servicemen, explaining their motivations and background within Port Chicago. Sheinkin clearly relates the unsafe working conditions that destroyed Port Chicago instantly killing several hundred people. Throughout this historical non-fiction book, readers share the patriotism, then anger at injustice faced by these extraordinary men. Sheinkin is a master storyteller and historian, weaving key quotes and primary source documents to relate a chapter of America’s history in an engrossing manner. Even through the uncertainties of collective memory and time lapsed, Sheinkin navigates different perspectives of key events to shed light on a lesser-known story of World War II while placing them in the broader context of what would become the Civil Rights Movement. The Port Chicago Fifty is highly recommended for ages twelve and up.
    • 5/5
      Although they had been given no training on handling explosives, the sailors, all African Americans, at the Port Chicago naval base just north of San Francisco, had only one job: move 500-pound bombs from railroad freight cars, roll them down to the pier into a cargo net. The net would then be lifted by a motorized winch into the hold of a waiting cargo ship. Inside the hold the men would then stack up the bombs. "At the very top, they loaded the “hot cargo,” as the men called it—650-pound incendiary bombs. Unlike the other explosive stacked in the ship, these had their fuses already attached." "The men at Port Chicago described the scene on the loading pier as frantic, stressful, loud, chaotic—bombs rolling and clanking together, winch engines chugging and smoking, nets swinging through the air, sailors shouting and cursing, officers urging the men on." On July 17, 1944, at 10:18 p.m. the men of Division Four who had finished work at 3 in the afternoon, and turned the loading over to another shift, were startled out of sleep by a thunder clap. Then the sky lit up like daylight. Their worst nightmare had come true. The shock wave from the explosion blew the windows of their barracks apart. The incoming shards lacerated them. One man was blinded. Then the barracks began to collapse. In the morning they discovered that the loading pier had disintegrated. There was nothing left of the munitions train that was being unloaded, nothing left of one of the two liberty ships that was being loaded, and just the stern of the other one sticking out of the water. Also in the water were bits of clothing, bodies, and bits of bodies. 320 men had been killed in “one of the biggest man-made explosions in history to that point.”At first the survivors, including the 390 injured but not killed by the blast were treated by the Navy as heroes. They were the ones that put out the fires caused by the explosion, and had the grisly task of fishing the bodies and parts of bodies out of the water. But when the official inquiry began, racism surfaced. The testimony of witnesses, all white officers, was summarized as “colored enlisted personnel are neither temperamentally nor intellectually capable of handling high explosives…” The report also stated that “unsafe practices and speed were not permitted by anyone on authority.” This was the official report, in spite of the fact that these same officers had a betting pool on which Division could load the most in the shortest time. These same incapable enlisted seamen were then transferred to another California base to load ammunition. When, just a few weeks later, they balked at returning to loading ammunition on another ship they were charged with mutiny, and threatened with the death penalty.Sheinkin’s short, powerful, and well documented study of segregation and institutional racism is worthy of the accolades that it has received including the 2014 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction and the 2015 Carter G. Woodson Book Award, as well as being a finalist for the National Book Award and the 2015 Young Adult Library Services Association Nonfiction Award Finalist.
    • 5/5
      Long before the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the day Rosa Parks refused to change her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama or other events associated with the Civil Rights movement, there was the men associated with Port Chicago. During WW II when all of our efforts should have been concentrated on fighting common enemies – the Axis powers in Europe and Japan – our country spent too much time and energy segregating black servicemen. In the Navy this resulted in a large number of these men who were tasked with loading ammunition into ships set for the Pacific. These men were never properly trained in the safe handling of these bombs, and when there was a tragedy that resulted in many lives lost, a small group of 50 simply refused to continue loading more bombs on more ships. What happened next is a national tragedy as they were accused and convicted of mutiny, something that haunted them for the rest of their lives. However, some good did come of it, as the armed forces were the first institutions to eliminate segregation, making it possible for the aforementioned events to eventually transpire. This was an interesting look back at an event in our history that many wish to be forgotten.
    • 5/5
      Once again the multiple award-winning author Steve Sheinkin excels at reporting an important (but not widely known) moment in history in a format friendly to younger readers as well as to adults. In this case, the moment he records changed the course of race relations in the U.S.Port Chicago was a U.S. Navy base in the San Francisco Bay where, during World War II, black sailers were assigned to load bombs and ammunition into ships headed for American troops in the Pacific. All the officers were white, but all the men loading the bombs were black. In addition, the whites (who were not actually doing the work) received training in safe handling of warheads and incendiary bombs, but no such training was given to the blacks.At that time, the military, like most of the country, was very segregated; even the blood supply was separated by color. Black men in uniform were not treated any better for serving the country; in fact, in parts of the country, they were considered even more offensive for presuming that their uniforms entitled them to any sort of respect or equal treatment. One white corporal reported a scene in Louisiana in which his black soldiers could not get served a meal in a single restaurant during a train stop, but a group of German prisoners of war, also at the train station, could walk right in to the station lunchroom and get served. In another instance in Louisiana, a black soldier on a bus was ordered to get out of the white section, and he replied he would rather get off the bus. He did so, but the bus driver stopped the bus, got out, and shot the soldier to death. The driver was not prosecuted. Nor were any of the other whites in southern cities who attacked black soldiers; rather, it was the victims who got charged with assault. Repeated instances like this kept the future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall busy as he travelled around the country for the NAACP trying to help fight the “avalanche of abuses reported by African American soldiers and sailors.”At Port Chicago, the soldiers were pushed to load as many bombs as possible, with officers pitting one division against the other and placing bets on whose division could load the fastest. Safety was not a concern. On July 17, 1944, there was a huge explosion, killing 320 and injuring another 390. A Navy Board of Inquiry decided that the way the explosives were being handled had no impact on safety; rather, according to the official report and based on only the testimony of the white officers:"The consensus of opinion of the witnesses…is that the colored enlisted personnel are neither temperamentally nor intellectually capable of handling high explosives…” Following this incident, a large number of black sailors refused to load ammunition again. But after the commandant of the Twelfth Naval District threatened them with a firing squad, all but fifty reported for work. These fifty were put on trial for mutiny. Their defense team was good, and worked hard to show that there were no witnesses to the white officers’ allegations of a conspiracy; that the sailors were just afraid; and that the men had no interest in "usurping, subverting, or overriding superior military authority," a part of the Navy’s definition of mutiny. But ultimately, as Joe Small, one of the Fifty, realized after the trial (summarized by Sheinkin):"The defense lawyers were all naval officers - they weren’t going to bring out details that would be embarrassing to the Navy. And even if they’d wanted to, the judges wouldn’t have let them.”But the fact remained that many of the so-called mutineers were not capable of working with the munitions, and not for reasons of “mental inadequacy,” as came out at the trial. One sailor, who weighed just 104 pounds, said he was specifically told by a Navy doctor he wasn’t strong enough. Another suffered dizzy spells and also been declared unfit for loading. One still had a fractured wrist from the explosion. One mentioned that because the officers were racing for money, he was afraid another explosion would happen. Another testified that the prosecutor threatened that if he didn’t “come clean” about a conspiracy, he would be shot. (Thurgood Marshall released a statement charging that the prosecutor was prejudiced and that it was impossible for the sailors to get a fair trial.) And so on.It was all to no avail. All fifty men were found guilty of mutiny. (Decades after the trial, the defense attorney revealed that he had overhead Rear Admiral Hugh Osterhaus of the court say, while the trial was still in progress, “We’re going to find them guilty.”) All fifty sentences were identical: fifteen years of hard labor in prison, and a dishonorable discharge from the Navy. A few of the younger sailors had some years knocked off of the sentences. Thurgood Marshall didn’t give up, writing directly to the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, arguing about the absurdity of the court’s proceedings and findings. Behind the scenes, Navy lawyers agreed with Marshall.Meanwhile, the abuses of black soldiers both on and off bases continued. The Navy finally decided that segregation was actually hampering the war effort, and instituted gradual integration. But there was no diminution in the sentences of the Port Chicago men. In May 1945, Secretary Forrestal’s office told Admiral Wright the court had made a mistake and the judges needed to reconsider their decision. The judges, however, voted to uphold all fifty convictions and prison sentences, claiming:"The trials were conducted fairly and impartially.”After the war was over, the public wouldn’t let go of the case, and even Eleanor Roosevelt got involved. Forrestal would not admit the Navy made a mistake, but wanted to make the case go away. In January, 1946, he ordered the Port Chicago prisoners transferred to a Navy ship and returned to active duty for service at sea (not, however, changing their status from “convicted mutineers”).The Fifty had to deal with prejudice on the ship, and Joe Small was forced to duke it out with one Alabama boy, Alex, who eventually became his close friend. When Small later asked Alex what it was that caused him to change his mind about befriending a black man, Alex replied:"I found out something. … A man is a man.”An Epilogue gives a brief recounting of Civil Rights advances following the events at Port Chicago, and extensive source notes. Throughout the text, there are many photos of both the people and documents described in the book.Evaluation: History doesn’t get much better or more readable than this. The author has done an outstanding job reporting an occurrence about which every American should be aware.
    • 4/5
      The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve SheinkinThis true account tells of 50 African-American sailors who fought for their civil rights in 1944 – 1945.After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a lot of men enlisted to help fight the enemy. African-Americans were among them. As the country was still divided racially, the military continued this policy. If a black man registered with the navy and was actually assigned to a ship, he could only work in labor areas, like the kitchen or laundry. Otherwise, he was sent to Port Chicago in California. Upon arriving, they received no training. Instead, they were told to stack bombs on ships, which was very dangerous. What they feared actually happened one day. Bombs exploded and over 300 were killed. There was little to nothing left of the ship. The black men said that they would no longer stack bombs because they were afraid. The Navy scared some into returning to their jobs, but 50 men said they would like to be re-assigned. They were put on trial. This is their story.This is a pretty interesting book although there is a bit of bias in the writing. It expresses opinion at times instead of sticking to only the facts. I like that this incident will not be forgotten—it’s something you should know about.
    • 5/5
      I’m so glad Steve Sheinkin left textbook writing to become a non-fiction book author. He seeks out the unknown. His writing is for upper elementary and middle school students but every adult I’ve shared his writing with have enjoyed the books. This book looks at black sailors during World War II who were court marshaled and convicted for insurrection because they refused to load ammunition with no training. It’s also a look at the early integration of the navy. As usual, Sheinkin’s writing reads like fiction, but his detailed documentation of sources prove it is non-fiction.