WASHINGTON -- Thirty-five Members of Congress led by Congressman George Miller (D-7- Calfornia) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) today sent a letter to President Clinton urging that he grant the pardon sought by one of the last remaining black sailors convicted of mutiny following the 1944 blast at Port Chicago, California.

Freddie Meeks of Los Angeles filed an application in February of this year seeking a presidential pardon of his conviction for refusing to resume loading munitions following the explosion that killed 320 sailors and wounded another 390. Fifty sailors, all black, were convicted despite evidence of widespread segregation and conditions imposed by the white officers that created extreme hazards in the loading operations.

Meeks' health is failing and the legislators are urging the President to act rapidly on the pardon application.

The letter notes that the California State Legislature has unanimously supported overturning the mutiny convictions, as has the NAACP, the Black World War II Navy Veterans of Great Lakes, Inc., leading California newspapers, the Black Hollywood Education and Research Center and others. The Port Chicago explosion and the subsequent mutiny trial have been the subject of tremendous upsurge of national interest including documentaries on The History Channel and The Learning Channel, an NBC-TV movie by Morgan Freeman, and numerous stories in newspapers across the nation. The letter is attached.

The Honorable William J. Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing in support of the petition for pardon submitted to you by Mr. Freddie Meeks of Los Angeles concerning his conviction on the charge of mutiny following the explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California on July 17, 1944.

Mr. Meeks' petition makes an eloquent argument for a presidential pardon. We join with groups ranging from the NAACP to the Black Hollywood Education and Research Center and the World War II Black Veterans of the Great Lakes, Inc., the California Legislature which unanimously supported removal of the convictions, editorials from across the nation and others to urge that you use your clemency powers to issue this pardon.

As you know, Mr. Meeks is ill and his petition ask for expedited consideration of his appeal. We ask that you honor that request and use your authority to bring a new and more honorable ending to what Eleanor Roosevelt called "sad story" of the Port Chicago catastrophe and prosecutions.

Sincerely,

George Miller, Senator Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Tom Lantos, Edolphus Towns, Julian Dixon, Bill Clay, Bob Matsui, Howard Berman, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Eve Clayton, Corrine Brown, Nancy Pelosi, Bob Filner, Danny Davis, Earl Hilliard, Anna Eshoo, Ellen Tauscher, Donna Christensen, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Pete Stark, Robert Wexler, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Gregory Meeks, Carie Meek, Sam Farr, Lois Capps, Zoe Lofgren, Chaka Fattah, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Major Owens, Donald Payne, Lynn Woolsey