The East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors on Tuesday unanimously voted to advance efforts to secure funding for development of the first public access point at the new Thurgood Marshall Regional Park – Home of the Port Chicago 50.
The Park District was awarded a $3 million direct appropriation in the California state budget, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 30, 2022.
“The new staging area, along with a planned visitor center, will help connect the public with the park’s important human history and the natural history and outdoor recreational opportunities of the land,” said Park District Director Beverly Lane. “Establishing public access to Thurgood Marshall Regional Park is a major priority for the Park District.”
Thurgood Marshall Regional Park is located at the site of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station. The Navy formally granted over 2,600 acres of land to the Park District in 2019. The District subsequently renamed the area to honor former U.S. Supreme Court Justice and renowned civil rights advocate Thurgood Marshall and the Black sailors, known as the Port Chicago 50, who he supported in a case that inspired desegregation of the U.S. Navy. The park currently has no public access.
The site is also home to decades-old bunkers, which represent the area’s past. The park will provide outdoor recreation activities, including hiking and biking, as well as visitor amenities such as restrooms, bike racks, and educational panels highlighting the park’s important history.
The Park District hopes to open the new staging area in 2025.
14 comments
Why is the park named after thurgood marshall? It’s not like he’s from this area.
They were just checking a Woke box. Should have named it Weapons Station Park…Simple
He’s was from Baltimore / DC area. Never lived here. Had a long career, friends with many politicians. So our East Bay Regional Park is named after a federal public figure as a way for his political friends to recognize his work. Yeah, that’s the way it works, the politicians will do what they want then pat each other on the back and make glorious speeches about it then fly back to DC.
How many years before Joe Public actually gets to set foot in it?
They should make it a redwood park. Make it worth something.
The article says the Park District hopes to open this new staging area in 2025. The Park is named after Thurgood Marshall, an African-American civil rights lawyer who defended the 50 African-American sailors charged with mutiny after the Port Chicago explosion in 1944. President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. If you disagree with the name, I would hope you could give logical reasons why, rather than snarky remarks.
Well, he didn’t actually “defend them” in the way a person might think of in a legal matter. He flew into San Francisco, on his NAACP expense account, traveled as far as Treasure Island and “sat in” on the trial for some hours on 12 days of the Military Court Martial that lasted for several weeks. He then reported back, saying what any good NAACP lawyer would say about the trial. Thurgood Marshall became an extremely admirable Justice and in most cases hopefully left his race out of the equation. However, neither Thurgood Marshall nor the 50 sailors are a good representation of what the Concord Naval Weapons Station accomplished over a 50 year span in American military history.
There are no logical reasons to disagree with the naming of the park, given the history of Thurgood Marshall and the Port Chicago 50. And he was a distinguished Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
3 Mil for public access? What does this mean?
There are already paved roads in and out of the old weapons station, am I wrong?
When will all the toxic waste and nuke waste be cleaned up?
Remember the statement ” we will not confirm or deny the presence on nuclear weapons at CNWS”.
Bring back the Elk
The Elk were not thriving at the CNWS so they were relocated years ago to a better environment and have done well in their new habitat. I miss em too though.
Shane on all who approved this.
They dishonor the thousands of Navy men and women who served on CNWS and successfully helped to DEFEND this nation for 50 years. For what purpose?
in order to honor the 50 US Sailors who were convicted of Mutiny, AND the name of a man who never set foot on that base. That is a blindsided insult to the 320 US Sailors (2/3 of whom were black) at the Port Chicago base who died while in honorable service to their Country as well as the 390 injured .
Thurgood Marshall Sr., an attorney at the time did complain about the verdict of Mutiny in Dec 1944. So did a very influential 1st Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Other than that, regardless of the in-your-face hype provided posthumously by NAACP, his civil rights attorney son, and the likes of woke vote-seeking bartender Mark DeSaulnier and his ilk, Marshall went on with his life and career and it seems did little, even during 25 years as sitting SCOTUS to get the Navy to reverse the verdict. 47 of those convicted were released from prison at the end of the war, having served less than 14 months in prison. While the tragedy was the worst on war-time US soil. There is no question that those men survived to tell their own stories. 298,000 Americans did not.
Eleanor Roosevelt was also very vocal about her disagreement over the verdict. Perhaps even more-so, at the time, than Marshall, who was little more than an average, outspoken black attorney groping for the next rung on the ladder.
But now, we find ourselves stuck in the headlights of a nation of spoiled, tik-toking, street brawlers, with taxpayer funded, tail tucking WOKE boot-licker officials who must concede that, after all, Eleanor Roosevelt was not of the correct gender, race nor ethnicity to be honored for anything in this 21st Century.
Maybe we could name it after another military man condemned by Court Marshall for open decent of his commanders’ orders, Brig. Gen William “Billy” Mitchell… but no. (same reason as Eleanor Roosevelt)
Instead of “park”, can we just call it a furture homeless camp, and open access toilet?
The “Concord Reuse Project” area of that map should be part of the park also. Its essentially open space and should be protected as such.
I hope they use the trail builder that built Crockett Hills Regional Park. Then the trails would be really nice and used by a lot of people.
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