⚓The naming of Thurgood Marshall Regional Park – Home of the Port Chicago 50 was the result of nine months of advocacy, research, public engagement, policy navigation, educational framing, and community coordination.

In 2020, when the East Bay Regional Park District announced a proposed name for the new regional park in Concord, California, several community organizations offered competing suggestions. To foster unity, the District turned to the newly-established East Bay Black Employee Collective — co-founded by PCA executive director Yulie Padmore along with Yolande Barial-Knight and Sabrina Pinell — and asked the employee group to help unite community voices together around one name.

Out of this collaboration, the community organization Citizens for Historical Equity developed the final proposal for Thurgood Marshall Regional Park – Home of the Port Chicago 50. Their early efforts included launching an online petition to name the park Thurgood Marshall Regional Park and publishing a white paper that featured a visual rendering of the future park sign with the tagline "Home of the Port Chicago 50." Key stakeholders – including the Friends of Port Chicago National Memorial, East County NAACP, United Veterans Council of Pittsburg, and the Black Employee Collective – reached consensus on including the tagline in the official name. This decision ensured the park would honor the legendary civil rights champion who fought to secure the freedom of the Port Chicago 50 and dismantle racial segregation, and the courageous Sailors whose protest against discrimination forced the nation to confront racial injustices in the U.S. Navy.

More than just a naming effort, the project became a model of how organized advocacy, creativity, and community-driven history preservation can shape public memory. It also marked the beginning of a larger movement, laying the foundation for the Port Chicago Alliance’s mission today. ⚑