Port Chicago explosion and refusal to load — 50 sailors court-martialed for mutiny

On July 17, 1944, an explosion at Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California killed 320 sailors, 202 of them Black enlisted men forced to load ammunition under dangerous segregated conditions. When Black sailors refused to return to loading a month later, 50 were court-martialed for mutiny and sentenced to up to 15 years. Thurgood Marshall attended the trial and called it an injustice; the events became a catalyst for desegregating the military.