![]() Soon after the meeting in the mess deck, black sailors began moving about the ship, harassing white sailors. The rumored incident validated their distrust of the ship’s justice system and stoked resentment. According to historian John Sherwood, many of Kitty Hawk’s black sailors believed that they were tried for offenses more frequently than their white shipmates and received harsher sentences. An investigation into the incident stalled after the Filipino men involved refused to cooperate, leaving the matter unresolved and thus further eroding race relations among the ship’s crew. The alleged attack was prevented when a few black sailors stumbled upon the assault and intervened. Many of their complaints revolved around a circulating rumor that a white sailor had hired a group of Filipinos to assault a black sailor. Within a few hours, approximately fifteen black sailors had gathered in the mess decks to discuss grievances stemming from their experiences with racial discrimination in Kitty Hawk and a frustrating lack of recourse.
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