Concord, California

Concord is a city located in Contra Costa County, California, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 121,780.

Naval Weapons Station

The City of Concord is bordered by an all-but-mothballed Naval Weapons site. The site consists of two areas, the Inland (5,170 acres) and Tidal (7,630 acres) Areas. The Federal Government has announced that the Naval Base is to be closed and returned to the City of Concord. Concord will most likely sell the land out to developers while keeping a large portion for open-space and parks projects.

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The Tidal area of the base is not scheduled for closure. The Inland portion contains mainly empty ammunition storage bunkers, and the empty warehouses and support structures for an active cargo port. At no time during the length of the station's operation did the site contain missile silos. Currently on one portion of the site is a Tule Elk herd.

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Port Chicago disaster

Concord Naval Weapons Station, which used to be called "Port Chicago," was involved in an ammunition explosion that is still controversial to this day. On the evening of July 17th, 1944, a ship packed with munitions and explosives was docking at the port when an extremely large explosion rocked the night sky. Buildings were damaged as far away as San Francisco, a distance of 48 miles. All 320 soldiers on duty were killed instantly. The Navy immediately sprang into action, sending soldiers to put out the fire and restore order in the area.

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Of the 320 men, nearly 2/3 were African American because of the racial segregation in the military at that time. This caused a huge uproar among the remaining African Americans in the area. Of the 328 remaining men in the Ordinance Battalion, 258 African Americans refused to load ammunition. All were court martialed, and all were given bad conduct discharges and ordered to forfeit 3 months pay for disobeying orders.

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The explosion and later mutiny proceedings would help illustrate the costs of racial discrimination and fuel public criticism. By 1945, as the Navy worked toward desegregation, some mixed units appeared. When President Harry Truman called for the Armed Forces to be desegregated in 1948, the Navy could honestly say that Port Chicago had been a very important step in that process.

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