This week's Theme: He Who Vindicates
Day 1: Exonerated!
In July 2024, fifty men were officially exonerated by the United States Navy eighty years after they had been court-martialed and jailed for what the Secretary of the Navy now describes as taking “the right course of action…” None of them lived to see their vindication.
The men, all black, served in the United States Navy as World War II raged in every corner of the globe. For the United States, the major focus was the fight in the Pacific, which they had joined after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
With the critical need for ammunition for US forces, Port Chicago in Northern California became a crucial supply center. And in the racially segregated Navy—where, according to war historians the most dangerous tasks were often assigned to African American soldiers—the dangerous work of transferring and loading explosives fell exclusively to African American sailors[1].
The Black servicemen had raised numerous concerns about standards, safety, and training, but they had gone unheeded. And then on July 17, 1944, their worst fears were realized.
In what the Navy was later to call “the worst home-front disaster of the war,” a massive explosion killed a total of 307 people, including 202 black sailors. Almost 400 more people were injured.[2]
The Navy granted a 30-day survivor leave to white officers, but the black sailors were denied leave. Still reeling from the trauma, shock, and loss of their friends and colleagues they were transferred to another port to continue their dangerous work. Shaken, and still uncertain about the exact cause of the explosion, the sailors protested the forced return to loading explosives, demonstrating willingness to do other work instead.
When white Navy officials insisted they resume their regular duties, they refused. Under threats and intense pressure from the Navy, 208 of them eventually complied. But the remaining 50, who came to be known as the Port Chicago 50 did not bow under the extreme intimidation, "citing the lack of proper safety measures and training."[3]
Eventually all 258 were court-martialed, but President Franklin Roosevelt recommended “nominal punishment” for those who had returned to work. The Port Chicago 50, on the other hand, were “charged and convicted of mutiny in a mass summary court-martial and sentenced to hard labor.”[1]
Eighty years later, the Navy conceded that the sailors were right to expose—and to refuse— work conditions that had proven dangerous and deadly, not just for themselves, but for the community and for the Navy itself. All were exonerated, and the Port Chicago 50 were cleared of all charges of mutiny.
The Port Chicago 50 are among countless who died bearing legal condemnation they did not deserve. Should we tally all the records in the halls of human justice, we would find centuries of abuses and wrongs, mistakes and miscarriages. As far back as the early days of nationhood of His ancient people, God constantly warns them against perverted justice (Exodus 23:2, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 16:19).
In his time, the prophet Habakkuk cried out to God, describing both the conditions and the consequences of injustice: Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted (Habakkuk 1:3-4). But God would remind Habakkuk that His law is never paralyzed— that His justice always prevails (Habakkuk 2:3).
In Hebrews 11, we love to embrace the concept of a "Hall of Faith", often focusing on the victory plaques and the stories of earthly triumph. But unless we pay close attention, we may pass too quickly over the plaques that simply state, EXONERATED.
These followers of God Almighty did not receive vindication in this life: These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised (Hebrews 11:39). They were paraded in Roman arenas, sentenced in human high courts, banished to human death camps. We only have a glimpse into a few of their stories:
...tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground... (Hebrews 11:35-38).
Throughout Scripture, throughout history, and into our day, the seeming triumph of evil and injustice has often the cause of great distress, despair, and loss of hope. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea, and various psalmists are among those, who like, Habakkuk cried out for God's intervention.
He heard, and still hears every prayer. And His answer comes in His perfect timing (Habakkuk 2:3). This may be hard for us to understand, since we do not perceive space and time as God does, but the assurance still stands, He who vindicates me is near (Isaiah 50:8).
The prophet Daniel, in the visions he was given about the progression of the kingdoms of the world until the reign of Christ, recorded, "As I looked, “thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took His seat... Thousands upon thousands attended Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened" (Daniel 7:9,10).
Yes, the time of ultimate justice will come, presided over by the Righteous Judge (Psalm 7:11) — the Ancient of Days in whose hands are the annals of history. All of us will stand before Him, with no covering but His own righteousness— for those who have accepted the sacrifice of His Son (Revelation 21:27).
[1] Naval Historian Dr. Regina Akers
Quoted in CBS broadcast January 7, 2025:
[2] Matthew F. Delmont, Author, Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
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