This interview originally aired on "In the Moment" on SDPB Radio.
In 1972, racial tensions on the USS Kitty Hawk simmered over into two days of violence. The US Navy charged 25 Black sailors with rioting and assault over the confrontation. No white sailor was ever charged nor was any incident of a white sailor allegedly assaulting a Black sailor investigated.
Marv Truhe was born in Winner, South Dakota, and is a former South Dakota assistant attorney general. He was a US Navy JAG lawyer at the time of the riots and defended half a dozen of the accused.
He hopes his new book, Against All Tides: The Untold Story of the USS Kitty Hawk Race Riot, will help expose the racial injustice behind the historical event more than 50 years after it occurred.
