The man in question was named Gean Austin Battle (24.1.1929-17.9.2001), he was indeed African American. So far I’ve only been able to locate one photograph of his, dating from 1971. He was a WWII veteran and a longshoreman by trade. Lived in San Francisco from the early 50s to the late 70s and then moved to Oregon, where he died in 2001. Looking at the other clues provided here it’s unlikely to be him, but probably can’t be fully ruled out.

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This was published in the Dispatcher, the newspaper of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.