A March 5, 1959, fire killed twenty-one young Black boys at the Negro Boys Industrial School in Wrightsville. The school was essentially a prison for youthful offenders and orphans, and the doors were locked and no adults were present when the fire started in the night.
Forty-eight other boys escaped the flames, which may have been caused by faulty wiring. Governor Orval Faubus sought to blame superintendent Lester Gaines, but the school was chronically understaffed and in deplorable condition.
A grand jury that investigated the disaster issued no indictments but found “the blame can be placed on lots of shoulders for this tragedy,” including the staff, several governors who ignored the school’s condition, the General Assembly, “and finally … the people of Arkansas, who did nothing about it.” Fourteen of the twenty-one victims of the fire, ranging in age from fourteen to sixteen, were buried in a mass grave at Little Rock’s Haven of Rest Cemetery; a monument to them was placed there in 2018.
To learn more, visit encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
You can read the entire Encyclopedia entry at Negro Boys Industrial School Fire of 1959 - Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
