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

Thurgood Marshall is a prominent civil rights lawyer, working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to strike down segregationist and other racist laws around the United States. Sheinkin depicts Marshall as being deeply influenced by his own experiences with racism growing up in segregated Baltimore. As a teenager, Marshall bumps into a white man on a bus, who then uses a racial epithet against Marshall. Rather than shy away, Marshall fights with the man—exhibiting Marshall’s drive to stand-up against racism no matter the cost. 

During WWII, Marshall receives numerous letters detailing racist treatment endured by black military members. Marshall is stunned to learn that the US military continually refuses to take any action in protecting its black members, and he begins petitioning the Navy to eradicate racism. Marshall begins to closely follow news stories of the Port Chicago 50 trial, as he feels the accused sailors are receiving a fraudulent trial as a result of the Navy’s broken and racist policies. After receiving permission to observe the trial, Marshall becomes even further convinced that the Port Chicago 50 are the victims of the Navy’s blatant racism. Though Marshall is supportive of Veltmann’s defense of the sailors, he is dismayed that Veltmann’s approach is to focus on the flaws in the prosecution’s argument rather than the Navy’s racial discrimination of the Port Chicago 50.

Following the trial, Marshall publicizes the story of the Port Chicago 50 in the media. He continually pressures the Navy to re-open the investigation, and the Navy finally agrees to allow Marshall to present his case to the Navy. Marshall argues that the trial focused on inadmissible evidence, leading to an unjust conviction. The Navy agrees with Marshall and instructs the judges of the trial to reconsider the case without the inadmissible evidence. The judges, however, once again find the Port Chicago 50 to be guilty of mutiny. Marshall continues to pressure the Navy to reconsider the case, but it refuses to grant Marshall more meetings. While Marshall is unsuccessful in his attempts to overturn the conviction of the Port Chicago 50, he goes on to litigate some of the country’s most important civil rights cases, including the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education.

Lieutenant Commander James Coakley is a Navy officer assigned as the prosecutor for the court-martial of the Port Chicago 50. As Coakley interviews the Port Chicago 50, he becomes convinced that the men had intentionally planned a mutiny, with Joe Small as their leader. Coakley focuses his case on the list of African-American sailors refusing to work that had circulated amongst the crew the night before they were ordered to resume loading explosives. Though the list was destroyed and never given to the Navy, Coakley argues that it shows clear intent to disobey authority. Likewise, Coakley focuses his case against Small on the speech that Small gave on the prison barge—in particular, emphasizing that Small had told his fellow sailors that they had the Navy officers “by the balls” (89). In Coakley’s view, such a statement shows that Small held a clear adversarial attitude. Throughout the trial, Coakley is displayed as being hot-tempered. Coakley frequently grows angry and frustrated as witnesses—both for the prosecution and the defense—fail to testify in the ways that Coakley had hoped. Despite Coakley’s outbursts, the judges ultimately side with Coakley’s argument and find the Port Chicago 50 to be guilty of mutiny.

Lieutenant Gerald Veltmann is assigned as the defense lawyer for the Port Chicago 50. Veltmann is given extremely little time to prepare his case and is not even able to meet with each of the accused sailors before the trial begins. In spite of this disadvantage, Veltmann prepares a case that argues that the actions of the Port Chicago 50 do not meet the Navy’s definition of mutiny, as they did not exhibit intent to disobey authority. Instead, Veltmann seeks to demonstrate that each of the Port Chicago 50 decided to disobey the order to load explosives of their own accord, and each for different reasons. Likewise, Veltmann attempts to convince the judges that the accused sailors were never violent in their actions, and that they had not shown a complete disregard for authority, only for the order to load explosives. In his defense of Small, Veltmann argues that the intention of Small’s speech had actually been to maintain order and curb violence between the sailors and their guards. However, the judges ultimately do not find Veltmann’s arguments convincing, as they side with the prosecution and convict the sailors of mutiny.