Ramy Shbaita – Land Restoration and Social Injustice of the Concord Naval Weapons Station
My research project is about the closure and land restoration projects of the Concord Naval Weapons Station. Opened in 1942, the Concord Naval weapons station was built on what was once Chupcan Native American land pre-1769. The Spanish claimed the territory and drove out the natives by the 1820s, putting most of them into missions and opening the land for American claims. Eventually the territory became what is known now as the city of Concord, until the United States Department of the Navy took two large sections of land for the construction and opening of a naval weapons station for World War II. The base was used as a major depot, seeing hundreds of tons of munitions, weapons, vehicles, fuel, and other war supplies through it every day. In 1944, a munitions explosion rocked the community, killing 320 people and injuring hundreds more. Named the “Port Chicago disaster”, it became a symbol of the African-American civil rights movement as 2/3rds of all casualties were African American, leading to the protests and court marshalling of 50 sailors. This event tied the community to the land, sharing its history now as the place where blood was shed and principals were stood up for. In 2011 the Navy decommissioned the Naval Weapons Station at Concord, leaving it behind to the community who worked with them for so many decades. However, in the planned development projects for the territory, one thing was clear, the land was extremely toxic. The story of the Concord Naval Weapons Station is one of environmental mismanagement at the expense of the city and its residents who fought for their rights and the rights of others, and the struggle to restore the land to something positive for those most heavily impacted.
- This picture highlights the location of the former Naval Weapons station at Concord and puts into perspective exactly where the area in question is.
This picture is of the memorial for the Port Chicago Disaster, listing the names of all the sailors who were killed in the explosion. The majority of those killed and injured were African-American.
- This graphic detail the specific land designation for the restoration projects by the city of Concord. (the picture is difficult to see but I have a higher quality PDF of this graphic which I can read quite easily).
Some sources being used thus far
include a detailed report from the Department of the Navy describing the
cleanup efforts of some of the munition sites of the former Weapons Station; land
analysis reports, findings, and recommendations from the Environmental Protection
Agency; an outlined reuse plan for the city of Concord to incorporate former
base areas into the city and residential areas, a detailed history of the civil
rights surrounding the community’s involvement with the Port Chicago Disaster from
the National Parks Service, and the personal accounts of those in the area from
the public comment forum made on the base closure in 2011.
My plan for the next three weeks is
to dive deeper into some of these sources, finding out how the city of Concord
plans to work with the department of the Navy to accomplish its restoration
goals, and if the Navy is being held responsible for the injustices it brought
to the community over the course of the base history. I also want to examine if
there was any debate or discussion that the land be returned to the native
tribes it once belonged to, or if those ties were long severed by the Spanish and
American settlements/ policy give them no thought. I also hope (if I am able)
to personally check on the restoration projects myself, visiting the sites of
the former base to see if the residential communities, recreational parks, and commercial
zones are still impacted today by the base they now occupy.
I really like how detailed your topic is. I like how you did a historical build up of base and the surrounding land. Starting with the native claim to land that was then taken by the Spanish settlers is interesting and I do hope you go into more detail on if there were still any natives still in the area throughout the years and maybe if there was any information about how they felt about the major explosion that you talk about later. I think your sources are solid and I like that you have found some first hand accounts from the public about the base closure. I feel like the sources you have like the detailed cleanup report and the restoration plan are solid to address the environmental factor of the project. I would just see if there are more sources for what the natives went through when losing that land and if the City has had any request to make the land native again in light of the closure. I feel like that would be an interesting addition, or to maybe find a native person still in the area and interview them since you mentioned visiting the site anyways. I am also wondering if you are going to add more info on why this was used by the civil rights movement? Because it sounds like it was an accident? I think more detail on that and tying it to how this related to what happened the natives as well would be a cool tie in. The environmental factor is interesting because you have a solid point about the land being highly contaminated and how leaving it this way is wrong for the city, its citizens, and of course the environment. All and all very solid work!!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, the presentation of the blog is clean. Definitely made it easier to read and absorb the information.
ReplyDeleteYour argument is clear without having to be directly stated, which is something that always drastically improves any form of writing with a purpose. Racial and environmental injustices are a super common and still relevant topic today, and the way you've gathered sources to build up the narrative is solid. The sources you listed are all great; nice and diverse, but they all relate very closely and directly to the event in different ways. However they aren't cited in the blog, so I feel it would be beneficial to add that via a bibliography or links so other readers can get a better idea of what you're working with.
The only other form of feedback I can give would possibly be to integrate your sources into your story in some way. I think the intersection of the racial and environmental implications of the base in Concord has the potential to be a great story to tell, and integrating your sources throughout your description of the event would definitely add a sense of weight to it.
A quick search through Google Scholar shows me that there are a lot of mentions to the Naval base without it being the main subject of the article. You could probably find some good pieces of information if you dig deeper into those articles that relate indirectly to the event.
First of all, this sounds like it will be an incredibly interesting project! From what I understand of what I just read, the argument you are making is essentially that the military took the land from its ancestral owners and abused it as a weapons station that would go on to affect the surrounding community negatively. It is very clearly historical, incorporating civil rights into the environmental history of the area and even diving back further to who the land originally belonged to. I think the story of this environmental mismanagement follows the historical guidelines as well, even if it does come into more recent history. I would say that so long as you don’t dwell on the more recent part in development for too long you should be safe. I only mention this because my original project idea was said to be a little too recent with large aspects going from 1993 - 2008. In addition to that I would just personally find the exploration of events like the Port Chicago Disaster to be a particularly interesting rabbit hole to dive down. I think the types of sources you are using are fantastic, however I would be curious to see what specific sources you were using. I found this source:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00064246.1982.11414237?casa_token=sR4YxlqJEeIAAAAA%3AofAR50ipW7_D4xORUaJ8aKpVy4TPL2ldim-FPmCrjj9oUmMkQSZPXxKdNZ8nbzmjXJL3G_P_cxd8&
that could help in your search for more sources regarding the Port Chicago disaster from the African Americans point of view. I also found this article:
https://www.navfac.navy.mil/niris/SOUTHWEST/CONCORD_NWS/N60036_001351.PDF
discussing the effects the instillation’s effects on the surrounding tidal areas which could be an interesting route to take. The issue is also very clearly environmental, with the toxic waste infecting the land of the former installation alongside how it has affected the surrounding communities. Overall this project looks very promising and I look forward to seeing what it turns into!
I enjoyed the introduction into the event that occurred at the Concord Naval weapons station. It caught my attention right away after reading about the explosion that took place. I especially liked the beginning which provided a bit of pre colonial history I feel like that something that is overlooked when it comes to the history of the land of the United States. You also present different important events in your research and are able to connect them which is important. I feel like adding those different events and putting them in one can help readers understand what was going on during that period. I want to hear more about the city of Concord and the Navy's efforts in working together to clean up the toxic waste left behind from weapons station. Presenting more recent research of the plans to clean up and restore the land can show the before and after effects caused by the weapon station being located there.
ReplyDelete