Racial violence flares
Racial violence flares aboard U.S. Navy ships on October 12, 1972. Forty-six sailors are injured in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk en route to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. The incident broke out when a Black sailor was summoned for questioning regarding an altercation that took place during the crew’s liberty in Subic Bay (in the Philippines). The sailor refused to make a statement and he and his friends started a brawl that resulted in sixty sailors being injured during the fighting. Eventually, 26 men, all Black, were charged with assault and rioting and were ordered to appear before a court-martial in San Diego.