The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights

Reviewed by: Lauren Isele - Prince Memorial Library, Cumberland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: March 9, 2015

Review

This work of narrative nonfiction by award winning author, Sheinkin, presents the moving story of a group of young black sailors who stood up to the U.S. Navy. There was racial prejudice and strict segregation in the U.S. Navy in 1944 until an explosion rocked military history and the lives of these 50 men. Sheinkin skillfully outlines the historical events that led up to the explosion using military documents, black and white photographs, court documents and the personal accounts of those sailors alive today. This work will generate discussions of early Civil Rights heroes for grades 6 and up. Source notes, works cited, picture credits and index appended. This book is recommended to the Cream of the Crop.

Overall Book Score: excellent