----
Executive Grant of Clemency
To All Whom These Presents Shall Come, Greeting:
WHEREAS in July 1944, a tragic explosion at the Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, killed 320 people, including 202 African-American enlisted men who, at the time of the explosion, were loading ammunition onto ships destined to supply American troops fighting in the Pacific during World War II; and
WHEREAS reflective of society at large, the U.S. Armed Forces were segregated at the time, and at Port Chicago only African-American sailors were assigned the duty of loading ammunition; and
WHEREAS Freddie Meeks was then serving as a Seaman Second Class in the United States Navy (Serial No. 879 04 63), and was assigned to Port Chicago as a loader of ammunition; and
WHEREAS following the explosion, Port Chicago enlisted men, including Seaman Second Class Meeks, engaged in clean up operations, including the extraordinarily difficult job of picking up human remains and debris from the explosion; and
WHEREAS in August 1944, Seaman Second Class Meeks and 49 other African-American sailors, all of whom had been assigned duty loading ammunition at Port Chicago at the time of the explosion, refused to resume loading ammunition at the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island, California; and
WHEREAS Seaman Second Class Meeks and the other 49 sailors who refused to resume loading ammunition were convicted by a United States Navy general court-martial convened by the Commandant, Twelfth Naval District, San Francisco, California, at the U.S. Naval Training Center, San Francisco California (Treasure Island), of making a mutiny; and
WHEREAS Seaman Second Class Meeks was sentenced on October 24, 1944, to 15 years' confinement at hard labor, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to the lowest enlisted pay grade (E-1), and a dishonorable discharge, which sentence was later reduced in November 1944, November 1945, and January 1946, to 17 months' confinement at hard labor, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances while confined, and reduction in pay grade to E-1; and
WHEREAS following his release from confinement. Mr. Meeks honorably completed his term of service to the Navy and to his country, received a discharge under honorable conditions, and thereafter returned to civilian life, where he quickly established himself as a stable, law-abiding citizen.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT KNOWN, that I, William J. Clinton, president of the United States of America, in consideration of the premises, divers other good and sufficient reasons me thereunto moving, do hereby grant a full and unconditional pardon to Freddie Meeks for the above-described offense against the United States.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto signed my name and caused the seal of the Department of Justice to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, District of Columbia, this 23rd day of December in the year of our Lord nineteen and ninety-nine and of the Independence of the United States the two hundred and twenty-forth
William J. Clinton
President-----
Freddie Meeks
Born: 10/24/19, Natchez, Missouri
Service Rank: SeamanMr. Meeks worked for the County of Los Angeles for 13 years and for the Los Angeles City Housing Authority for 12 years. He loves to play golf, and is a member of the Bethesda Apostolic Church. He is especially proud that all his children received a good education. He and wife Eleanor have been married for 57 years and have three children.