CCCBA Drives Effort to Exonerate the Port Chicago 50

The Contra Costa County Bar Association formed the Port Chicago Task Force after the CCCBA DEI Committee presented a November 2021 program about the Port Chicago Disaster that occurred near Concord in 1944 and the historical injustice of the mutiny trial.

The CCCBA Port Chicago Taskforce is comprised of CCCBA member attorneys as well as non-attorneys from the community with an interest in the Port Chicago 50. The Port Chicago Task Force was formed with two goals:

• Seek to raise awareness of this injustice in the legal and broader community and

• Advocate for the setting aside of the mutiny convictions of the Port Chicago 50.

• Sign the petition at www. change.org/p/exonerate-theport-chicago-50. So far over 1,100 signatures have been gathered.

• Call or write to the Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro urging support for the exoneration of the Port Chicago 50.

• Share the information with your family, friends, colleagues.

In February 2023, local Representatives

Mark DeSaulnier, Barbara Lee and John Garamendi introduced another House Resolution recognizing the victims of the disaster. The bill has yet to pass in the Senate. Support from the legal community and the public is vital to restore the integity and honor to the legacies of these sailors. For more information on the CCCBA’s efforts, visit cccba. org and search Port Chicago.

Continued from page 25 publications concerning civil litigation and trials, construction defect matters, and insurance issues.

Commissioner Lifter also brings an extensive record of volunteer service. For nearly a decade while in private practice, she served in the Contra Costa Superior Court’s Temporary Judge Program, hearing many of the same case types she now oversees in Department 54. For eight years, she was a volunteer in the Court Appointed Special Advocates program supporting abused and neglected children in the foster care system. In 1995, she received the State Bar of California Wiley W. Manuel Certificate for Pro Bono Legal Services, an award which recognizes the contributions of the those who volunteer their time and expertise on behalf of low-income clients.