Photograph of Port Chicago Naval Magazine After the Explosion

A Navy pilot, Lieutenant Glen I. Newhouse, took this aerial photograph the morning following the deadliest home front disaster of WWII. The explosion at Port Chicago Naval Magazine near Concord, CA on July 17th, 1944 killed 320 sailors instantly, the majority of whom were African Americans. During WWII, Port Chicago was the Navy’s largest Pacific Theater ammunition shipment facility on the West Coast. The African American sailors stationed at the base were not only barred from many service options by segregation, but were also given little training to handle ammunition. This photograph shows the scale of destruction of the explosion that registered 3.4 on the Richter scale and obliterated the pier, the delivery train, and the 2 cargo ships that were being loaded at the time. After the disaster, many of the sailors refused to return to the same unsafe work conditions, which led to the largest naval mutiny trial of its kind and convictions for 50 African American sailors. The shameful treatment of the sailors at the base due to segregationist policies led to the Navy becoming the first branch of the military to desegregate in 1946. The Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial, located at the destroyed pier, both honors the men who struggled and died for freedom and serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggles for equality and social justice today.