A Legacy of Civil Rights: Port Chicago / Concord Hills

The explosion that occurred at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine on July 17, 1944 was born of the racial prejudices then prevalent in the military. This tragedy, and what happened to many of the surviving African American sailors afterwards, served as a major catalyst for the burgeoning social justice efforts of the 1950s and ’60s in the U.S. now widely referred to as the Civil Rights Movement. As East Bay Regional Park District and the National Park Service look towards the future of a joint visitor center planned on the former Concord Naval Weapons Station, we strive to speak truth to this history and do our part as public land stewards to work towards a more just society.