The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #87643 Message #1638153
Posted By: Bat Goddess
31-Dec-05 - 12:25 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Port Chicago Ca1944 ammo ship explosion
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Port Chicago Ca1944 ammo ship explosi
I know what I heard was more recent than this but --
All Things Considered, December 23, 1999 ยท NPR's Neal Conan reports on President Clinton's pardon of a man court-martialed for mutiny in World War Two. Freddie Meeks was one of 50 black sailors who refused to resume loading ammunition on a ship after 320 men, most of them black sailors, were killed in an explosion. The sailors who refused to follow the orders were convicted of mutiny. A Navy review of the case in 1994 found that race played a part in the incident. The now-elderly Freddie Meeks is the only one who asked for a pardon, and is one of only two known survivors.
I think it may have been Freddie Meeks I heard interviewed.