Two ships explode at Port Chicago; 320 men are dead, most of them Black sailors loading bombs in the dark

At 10:18 p.m. on July 17, 1944, the SS E. A. Bryan was loading bombs and shells at Port Chicago Naval Magazine when it exploded, taking the pier, a locomotive, and the nearby Quinault Victory with it. The blast, equal to about 5,000 tons of TNT, killed 320 men instantly and injured 390 more. Only 51 bodies could be identified. Most of the dead were the Black enlisted sailors the Navy had assigned to load munitions without formal training…