Exoneration

On July 17, 1944, less than 7 miles from the current headquarters of the Contra Costa County Bar Association, the worst homeside disaster of World War II occurred and resulted in the deaths of 320 sailors and left hundreds wounded. The majority of those killed were Black sailors who loaded bombs and ammunition onto ships. After the explosion, 50 surviving sailors refused to go back to work loading the explosives. At a trial on Treasure Island, the Port Chicago 50, as they were called, were convicted of mutiny.

In February 2022, the CCCBA established the Port Chicago Task Force with the goals of raising awareness of the disaster and advocating for the exoneration of the Port Chicago 50. The cause was close to the heart of Jonathan Lee, a member of CCCBA’s Board of Directors. He took on the leading role with the CCCBA’s Port Chicago Task Force and worked tirelessly making exoneration arguments to federal, state, and local leaders, as well as the Department of the Navy.

This year on July 17, 2024, the 80th Anniversary of the Disaster, The Secretary of the US Navy Carlos Del Toro announced full exoneration. Quoted in the Washington Post, Del Toro called the charges “a tremendous wrong. I have made the decision,” he continued, “inherent within my authority dating to the laws of the time, to set aside the court-martial of all sailors convicted as part of the Port Chicago incident.”