genre: young adult nonfiction
During WWII, America's racist policies within the armed forces created serious division in an organization whose cohesion was essential to its success. When the Black sailors assigned to Port Chicago were told that their duty was to load highly explosive cargo into ships, they did it - even though it was ONLY the Black sailors who had to do this dangerous job. When tragedy strikes and those same Black sailors refuse to continue to be the only sailors being put in danger in this way while the same racist policies making them load explosives actually keep them from fighting on the front of a war - their leadership looses its collective mind. How dare Black men have a mind of their own and stand up to the Navy when the Navy is in the wrong?
This is a book about that. It's well written, with a younger audience in mind, and I learned so much. These men stood up against a war machine that wanted people to shut up and obey - especially if you were Black - and they had to deal with the consequences. This book also reminded me that long before other Civil Rights leaders began demanding change in society as a whole, other brave men and women were, in their own sphere, exposing segregation and racism for the ugliness that it is.
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