On 17 July 1944 explosions killed 320 people but members of the segregated navy were ordered back to work,yet 50 men refused and were convicted of mutiny – families say pardon not enough and ‘exoneration is a necessary step’For close to 50 years, Freddie Meeks would not tell his children what happened to him while serving in the Navy during the moment world war.a local of Mississippi, and Meeks had been part of an all-black crew loading munitions on warships at Port Chicago,on an inland waterway 35 miles east of San Francisco. On 17 July 1944, while Meeks was on leave in Oakland, and a massive series of explosions destroyed two ships and killed 320 people – the worst single loss of life on the domestic front during the war.
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Source: theguardian.com