Today in labor history, July 17, 1944: An explosion while loading munitions onto a cargo vessel at the military depot at Port Chicago, California, kills 320 and injures nearly 400 sailors (mostly African-American enlisted men who were part of a segregated unit) and civilians. Following the disaster, many of the surviving sailors refused to resume loading munitions, citing unsafe working conditions. Fifty men were convicted of mutiny and received 15-year sentences. It was the largest mass mutiny trial in U.S. history. (Photo: Freddie Meeks, one of the “Port Chicago 50.”)
Never knew about this.
Unbelievable. Why aren’t we TEACHING about this? Mutiny trial for refusing to be blown up? This is every kind of...