![\"Port](\"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Port-Chicago-50.png\")
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Before hearing Steve Sheinkin speak at the 2014 YSS<\/a> Spring Conference in White Plains, NY, I had never heard of the Port Chicago 50<\/em>. \u00a0When Sheinkin told us about the Port Chicago disaster<\/a> and then went on to explain how the 50 men who had been too afraid to return to work were charged with mutiny, I was dumbfounded. \u00a0I “had” to know more about this story and how it was that the charge of mutiny actually stuck.\u00a0 I don’t often find nonfiction books so compelling, but I found myself sitting in my driveway after I got home and popping in my ear buds during lunch breaks at work because I just couldn’t tear myself away from this story — especially when I got to the court trial.\u00a0 It was\u00a0as if\u00a0I\u00a0were listening to an episode of Law & Order: Historical Case Files<\/em>. \u00a0(If they end up starting a spin-off show with that title, y’all are my witnesses that I came up with the idea and deserve some royalties!)<\/p>\n I especially appreciated how Steve Sheinkin pointed out the fact that the members of the Port Chicago 50 were early, and largely unsung, heroes in the Civil Rights Movement. \u00a0Not only did their plight shine a light on the unfairness of the segregation of duties within the Armed Forces, but their treatment by civilians once they left the base was sometimes atrocious, regardless of the fact that they were putting their lives on the line to fight for their country. \u00a0One of the quotes that best summarizes how these men effected change in the people around them actually came as the answer to a question between friends. \u00a0When Joe Small (the so-called leader of the Port Chicago 50) asked his friend Alex (a formerly racist Alabaman) what had changed his mind about befriending a black man, Alex replied, “I found out something. \u00a0A man is a man.”\u00a0 So simple a statement, yet so profound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before hearing Steve Sheinkin speak at the 2014 YSS Spring Conference in White Plains, NY, I had never heard of the Port Chicago 50. \u00a0When Sheinkin told us about the Port Chicago disaster and then went on to explain how the 50 men who had been too afraid to return to work were charged with … Continue reading The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,10,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-books-for-young-adults","category-nonfiction","category-reviewed-by-chrissie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffpicks.eglibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}