Port Chicago Naval Magazine becomes national park unit #392

October 29, 8:36 AMNational Parks Recreation ExaminerRandi Minetor

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Port Chicago in 1951.  Wikimedia Commons.

With the stroke of a pen on Wednesday, October 28, President Barack Obama turned Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial into the 392^nd unit of the National Park System. Port Chicago has been an affiliate of the park service, but will now receive federal money for National Park Service staff members and the development of a visitor orientation facility.

The new national park unit, located at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord, Calif., is the site of one of the most deadly accidents in United States history.  On July 17, 1944, crews at the magazine in the San Francisco Bay area were loading two Pacific-bound naval vessels with active munitions when the explosives ignited.  The series of blasts destroyed both ships and killed everyone at the waterfront:  320 men died, and nearly 400 more were injured.

The horror of this deadly incident was compounded by the fact that 202 of the dead were African Americans.  America’s segregated military pushed enlisted and drafted African Americans into jobs requiring physical labor, often with little or no training—and the Port Chicago stevedores had not had the proper instruction in handling munitions.  Worse, they believed the bombs were inactive, so they worked at unsafe speeds to load munitions equipped with active warheads. 

When survivors of the blast were reassigned to another base and ordered to continue loading ships, many refused to do so.  They demanded the proper training—and not only did the US Navy refuse the request, but the military body charged 50 of the men with “conspiring to make mutiny.”  The case went to trial, and these 50 men were convicted and sent to prison.  While they were released after the war, completed their time in the military and received honorable discharges, the case stands out as a prime example of sanctioned racial discrimination in the 1940s.  By 1948, when President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981 to desegregate the military, these men had returned to civilian life. Only one eventually received a pardon.

President Obama created the new park site by signing the Defense Authorization Act, which transfers the five acres around the site of the explosion to the National Park Service.  The act permits the park service and the military to coordinate public access through an active military base, and to establish a visitor center. 

Reservations for visiting Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial can be made by calling 925-228-8860.  Visitors need military clearance as well as reservations, so call at least two weeks in advance of your planned visit date.  No visits occur when the docking and loading of military ships are planned.