Arts & Events
Press Release: The Story of Freddie Meeks, A California Resident, and Port Chicago
Unbelievable… Emotional…Dramatic…Thought Provoking are some words audiences have used to describe Port Chicago 50. Told through the eyes of Freddie Meeks, portrayed by Hal Williams of 227 TV fame. Port Chicago 50 is a must see for everyone and will be a weekend of historical enlightenment! The powerful story is co-written by David Shackelford and Dennis Rowe, and directed by Dennis Rowe. The performances are at the Berkeley Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley: 3201 Adeline Street.
Show dates are:
Friday, March 17th, 2017 @8:00 pm; Saturday, March 18th, 2017 @3:00 pm & 8:00 pm and Sunday March 19th, 2017 @ 4:00 pm.
General seating tickets are only $30.00 and $35.00 for VIP seating with a special Veteran/Student ticket for $25.00. Tickets purchase by Friday March 10th, 2017 will have $5.00 taken off of the ticket price. A VIP ticket includes priority seating and a complimentary glass of wine/champagne. Tickets can be purchased at the theater box office, Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or on-line at www.blackrepertorygroup.com. Service charges are additional. For additional information call (510) 652-2120. Seating is limited.
A Time In History: Dare to Remember…….
It’s July 17th in Port Chicago, California, a cool summer Friday night at a munitions naval base 30 miles north of San Francisco. The year is 1944 and World War II is in full swing. According to a United States Navy report, “The actual work of loading ammunition and explosives aboard the ships was performed exclusively by Afro-Americans under the supervision of white officers and Afro-American petty officers” and the routine assignment of Afro-American enlisted personnel to manual labor was clearly motivated by race and premised upon the mistaken notion that they were intellectually inferior and thus incapable of meeting the same standards as their white counterparts”. But then the unspeakable happened, explosion after explosion – so fierce, it shook the ground with the force of an earthquake. Knocking out windows and shaking buildings as far east as Boulder City, Nevada. The results of the explosion at the naval facility killed or wounded 710 people, 435 of whom were African American. This single disaster accounted for more than 15 percent of all African American naval casualties during World War II.What happening next is even more mind-boggling than the explosion itself? Following the explosion, many of the African American survivors expected to be granted survivors’ leave before being reassigned to regular duty, but that leave was not granted, even for those who had been hospitalized, and all African American men were sent back to work loading ammunition under the same officers as before. Fifty sailors of the United States Navy, all African Americans men, refused to resume loading activities under the same conditions and were ultimately tried and convicted of mutiny for failing to obey orders. Thurgood Marshall, then chief counsel for the NAACP, was reported to state he saw no reason why the men should be tried for mutiny, which implies a mass conspiracy, rather than on lesser charges of individual subordination, and blasted the trial by stating that the defendants were being tried for mutiny “solely because of their race and color”. Virtually all of the convicted sailors were released from prison early in 1946 and were given a general discharge from the Navy “under honorable conditions”. In 1999, Freddie Meeks was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in recognition of the injustice he suffered as one of the convicted sailors, and at the time of his pardon, Mr. Meeks said, “After all these years, the world should know what happened at Port Chicago. It should be cleared up that we did not commit mutiny, and we were charged with that because of our race”. In July 11, 2016 the Assembly Joint Resolution No. 33 was filed with the Secretary of State – it would pardon all of the members of the Port Chicago 50. Additionally it has been presented to President Barack Obama to pardon the reminding forty nine African American Sailors.
Dennis Rowe Entertainment in association with the Black Repertory Group is proud to present Port Chicago 50, a story of love for Country, the American Dream and a quest for Equality and Fairness.
“Port Chicago 50”uses some strong language. The production is produced under the Broadway N’ Black Theater Series.
