Thurgood Marshall attends Port Chicago trial — NAACP challenges military racism

Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel of the NAACP, attended the Port Chicago mutiny trial in September 1944, called the mass court-martial an injustice, and demanded a government investigation of the Navy's practice of assigning Black sailors exclusively to dangerous segregated support roles. His intervention brought national attention to military racism and contributed directly to organizing pressure that led to Truman's 1948 desegregation order.