Port Chicago 50

Joe Small

Joe Small was a hard working and honest soldier. While he was at Port Chicago one of the ammunition loaders accidentally dropped an incendiary bomb and it blew the port apart, and destroyed the barracks' windows. After the disaster, everybody started blaming black people for the disaster, because white officers tried to not be blamed and then blamed the blacks. A few days after the explosion, Division Four refused to load ammunition into the boats because they became scared. The white officers figured out that Joe Small was the leader of this rebellion. He was sent to court and accused of mutiny. Joe Small was sentenced 15 years to federal prison. After two years of hard labor Thurgood Marshall got him out of prison legally. After that, he gets a job on sea, and is finally an actual sailor. He remains a mutineer to this day.

Officer Delucchi

Officer Delucchi is an officer in charge of Joe Small's division. He assigned Joe Small to call candence. He had a very short temper. He claimed that when the division was talking about how scared they were about the explosion they were talking mutinously.

Thurgood Marshall

When Trurgood Marshall was little, he knew that being segregated was wrong and his dad told him to never stop fighting. One day when he was a teenager delivering the news paper, he got on a trolley, and before he could sit, it lurched forward and he fell back on a white man, a they started a fist fight. He was then accused of assault, from that day on he vowed to never stop fighting for equal rights for blacks. About 7 years later he was a lawyer and the Port Chicago 50 trial caught his eye and he started to fight. After, the 50 were sentenced to 15 years of hard labor and prison he kept fighting two years later he got the 50 "mutineers" out of prison.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Port Chicago Disaster may have been forgotten a long time ago, many people still know this disaster took place. The 50 sailors who refused to load ammunition the whole time and were marched on the barge, are all dead, and all are still considered "mutineers". Joe Small and the other sailors moved on quickly with their lives. Moving on was the only way they could live on without pain. Some forgave the Military for "being stupid."

Vocabulary

Vane- a broad blade attached to a rotating axis or wheel that pushes or is pushed by wind or water and forms part of a machine or device such as a windmill, propeller, or turbine.
Incendiary-Designed to cause fires
Conspirators-a person who takes part in a conspiracy.

hypocritical-behaving in a way that is different from what you believe is right

beelinned- a straight line between two places

stymied- prevent or hinder the progress of