1959 — March 5, fire, Negro Boys Industrial School Reformatory dorm, Wrightsville, AR–21

–21 Arkansas Times. “Stirring the ashes. A victim’s relative sparks…look…tragedy.” 3-2-2008.
–21 Blytheville Courier News, AR. “Blytheville Mother Sues State for $25,000.” 4-7-1959, p. 1.
–21 Blytheville Courier News, AR. “Mass Funeral For Fire Victims.” 3-10-1959, p. 1.
–21 Bugbee. “Fire Protection Developments in 1959.” NFPA Quarterly, 53/3, Jan 1960, 178.
–21 Harrison Daily Times, AR. “21 Youths Perish in Fire at State Negro…School.” 3-5-1959, 1
–21 Harrison Daily Times, AR. “Fire Probe Under Way at Negro School.” 3-9-1959, p. 4.
–21 Hope Star, AR. “Boy’s School Pay Probe to Continue.” 4-21-1959, p. 2.
–21 Hope Star, AR. “Hearings Are Resumed in School Claims.” 6-23-1959, pp. 1-2
–21 Hope Star, AR. “School Fire Disaster Report Again Delayed.” 3-25-1959, p. 2.
–21 Hope Star, AR. “Will Discuss Rebuilding Boys School.” 3-6-1959, p. 4.
–21 NFPA. “Large Loss of Life Fires of 1959.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Vol. 53, July 1960, 38.
–21 National Fire Protection Association. Quarterly of the NFPA. Vol. 52, No. 4, Apr 1959.
–21 Wilson. “Institutional Fire Protection is Different.” NFPA Quarterly, 55/1, July 1961, 33.

Narrative Information

National Fire Protection Association: “On March 5, 1959 a night fire in a dormitory at the state-run boys’ industrial school in Wrightsville, Ark., killed 21 boys and injured numerous others. The 1-story, brick-veneered, wooden building had ‘escape-proof’ screens at each window…and the boys were locked in for the night. The lack of an automatic sprinkler system, the combustible construction of the building, and the failure to provide a substitute for the sick, key-carrying building caretaker, were the principal ingredients which could have forecast the tragedy had anyone analyzed the conditions. Starting when the vent to a wood-fired stove ignited the combustible fiberboard ceiling, the fire spread in the undivided attic. Twenty-one of the 68 boys were trapped while the others miraculously managed to break down screens and escape.” (National Fire Protection Association. Quarterly of the NFPA. Vol. 52, No. 4, Apr 1959.)

National Fire Protection Association: “”Detention Dormitory at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School. Wrightsville, Ark., March 5, 3:15 A.M. 21 Killed; All Boys 15 to 17 Years Old.

“Twenty-one of the 68 boys (mostly 15 and 16 years old) that had been locked in the barracks-type dormitory for the night lost their lives when fire broke out in an adjoining section of the 1-story brick veneered combustible building. The caretaker who normally stayed in the building was absent due to illness. No substitute had been provided….

“In the absence of a school fire brigade, local fire department or water supply, there was no fire fighting of any consequence. One engine company responded [eventually and too late] from Little Rock, eight miles away….

“The School’s board of trustees subsequently discharged the superintendent, for his failure on the night of the fire to arrange for a substitute caretaker.” (NFPA. “Large Loss of Life Fires of 1959.” Quarterly of the NFPA, Vol. 53, July 1960, p. 38.)

Wilson/National Fire Protection Association: “Another example of a penal institution fire occurred in March 1959 in a boys’ reformatory in Wrightsville, Ark. Twenty-one of the 68 boys that had been locked in the barracks-type dormitory for the night lost their lives when fire broke out in an adjoining section of the one-story combustible building. The caretaker, who normally stayed in the building, was absent due to illness. No substitute had been provide.

“Ignition of the combustible fiberboard ceiling by the vent pipe from a stove in the recreation room was the probable cause. The fire was spreading along the ceiling and had gotten into the undivided attic before one of the boys awoke at 3:15 am. Kicking out the heavy wire screening on one of the windows he escaped and ran to another building to give the alarm. As the other boys awoke and found the room in which they were caged filled with smoke, they struggled wildly to get out through windows. Twenty-one were trapped by flames, heat, and smoke, before they could escape, only minutes after flames first flickered over the combustible fiberboard surface.

“The Board of Trustees subsequently fired the superintendent for failure to provide an adult on duty in the building with keys. It is true that someone with keys might have helped, but here again people were placed in an unsprinklered combustible institution. The Building Exists Code requires sprinklers for combustible penal buildings.” (Wilson, Rexford. “Institutional Fire Protection Is Different.” Quarterly of…National Fire Protection Assoc., Vol. 55, No. 1, July 1961, pp. 28-36.)

Newspapers

March 5, Associated Press: “Little Rock, Ark. (AP) — Twenty-one boys perished in a fire that destroyed the main dormitory of the Arkansas training school for Negro boys at nearby Wrightsville today. The doors of the big brick and frame building were locked and windows were barred with heavy metal screens. Survivors had to kick their way through the tough double screens in order to get out of the blazing building. Sixty-eight boys ranging in age from 14 to 17 were housed in the structure. The bodies of 12 youths were found piled in a corner. Apparently they died in a vain attempt to break through a window. Nine other bodies were found in the ruins.

“Gov. Orval E. Faubus, who went to the scene as soon as he learned of the fire, declared it was inexcusable that doors were locked and no supervisor was on hand. Angrily, the governor told newsmen: ‘If there had been an adult on duty with the keys at the time the fire started, I don’t believe a single boy would have burned.’ Faubus announced an investigation would be made to determine why the boys were locked up without arrangements for quick evacuation.

“Firemen said they believed the fire may have started in a part of the dormitory away from the sleeping boys. Origin of the fire was undetermined, but an electrical storm was raging when the flames broke out about 4 a.m. and lightning may have struck the building.

“George Williamson, a 16-year-old survivor, said he was awakened by screams. ‘There was smoke all over. I couldn’t see anything.’ Williamson said, ‘I found a window and got out.’

“The building burned down within an hour. Firemen from Little Rock, 12 miles away, arrived too late to bring the blaze under control.

“A vocational teacher normally slept in the dormitory. But he entered a hospital Feb. 21 and no adult took his place.

“Faubus said he inspected the building last year and found safety precautions were adequate. The governor promised at a news conference shortly after he returned to Little Rock that new studies of safety conditions at other Arkansas institutions would be made immediately….

“Authorities were unable to make a complete roll call of survivors, but most of the inmates were accounted for.” (Harrison Daily Times, AR. “21 Youths Perish in Fire at State Negro Training School.” 3-5-1959, p. 1.)

March 6, Associated Press: “Little Rock (AP) – The Joint Legislative Budget Committee will meet with Gov. Orval E. Faubus Monday to hear his suggestions on rebuilding facilities destroyed in yesterday’s tragic fire at the Negro Boys Industrial School. The main dormitory of the Wrightsville school for delinquent boys burned to the ground. Twenty-one boys were trapped and died in the holocaust….Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.” (Hope Star, AR. “Will Discuss Rebuilding Boys School.” 3-6-1959, p. 4.)

March 9, Associated Press: “Little Rock (AP) — An investigation — requested by Gov. Orval E. Faubus — into last week’s fire that killed 21 youths at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School at nearby Wrightsville, has been started by the school’s Board of Trustees. Board Member J.C. Hawkins of North Little Rock said no one had been fired or relieved of duties because of the blaze. He said the three-man board had not conferred with Faubus but that the governor requested the probe through Al F. Smith of Paragould, board chairman. Anderson E. Woods Sr., of Menifee (Conway County) the third board member, said the inquiry was launched Saturday with a meeting at the school. Hawkins and Woods declined to give any details of the investigation and said any statement probably would be cleared through the governor’s office and might be released by the governor.

“The fire leveled a dormitory at the school. Forty-seven youths survived by escaping through windows after they had kicked off heavy metal screens covering them….” (Harrison Daily Times, AR. “Fire Probe Under Way at Negro School.” 3-9-1959, p. 4.)

March 10 Associated Press: “Little Rock (AP) — A mass funeral was scheduled here today for 14 of 21 teen-agers who died in a fire last Thursday at the Negro Boys Industrial School at Wrightsville. Individual services have been held or are scheduled for seven other victims. The 14 were so badly burned that identification was impossible.” (Blytheville Courier News, AR. “Mass Funeral For Fire Victims.” 3-10-1959, p. 1.)

March 25, Associated Press: “Little Rock (AP) – Release of a report on an investigation into the disastrous Negro boys Industrial school fire was held up again today. Gov. Orval E. Faubus has not finished studying the report compiled by State Police.

“Twenty-one Negro teen-aged boys died in a pre-dawn fire which razed a locked dormitory at the Wrightsville school March 5.

“The report was completed late last week, but Faubus was on vacation at the time. He said yesterday he would release the report as soon as he had read and studied it. He declined to give details of portions he already had studied except to say there was no indication of arson.

“Parents of seven of the victims have filed claims totaling $157,000 against the state, alleging the fire resulted from negligence of state employees. Other claims are expected. Records release yesterday show the state paid $8,424 for funerals for the 21 victims.” (Hope Star, AR. “School Fire Disaster Report Again Delayed.” 3-25-1959, p. 2.)

April 7, Associated Press: “Little Rock (AP) – Celia Ams of Blytheville yesterday file a claim of $25,000 with the state Claims Commission for the death of her son, Cecil Preston, 17, in a fire at the state Negro Boys Industrial School at Wrightsville. It was the thirteenth claim filed as a result of the dormitory blaze which killed 21 boys March 5.” (Blytheville Courier News, AR. “Blytheville Mother Sues State for $25,000.” 4-7-1959, p. 1.)

April 21, Associated Press: “Little Rock (AP) – A special legislative audit which questioned the handling of payroll warrants at the Negro Boys Industrial school will be turned over to Pulaski Prosecutor J. Frank Holt, Gov. Orval E. Faubus said yesterday. The audit, directed by the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee, concerned payroll administration by ex-superintendent L.R. Gaines. Gaines was fired after a March, 5 dormitory fire which killed 21 inmates of the Wrightsville school.

“Audit Committee members voted to send the findings to Faubus. The governor said he had not studied it thoroughly. The audit cited ‘a variety of handwriting styles’ on pay warrants issued to two employes and said Gaines had been second endorser on others. Gaines told auditors his endorsement was on the warrants because he frequently cashed them for employes.” (Hope Star, AR. “Boy’s School Pay Probe to Continue.” 4-21-1959, p. 2.)

June 23, Associated Press: “Little Rock (AP) – Testimony of relatives who are seeking a total of $550,000 from the state for the deaths of 20 [of 21] youths in a fire at the Negro Boys Industrial School last March 5 was completed today. Other phases of a hearing before the state Claims Commission continued. Twenty-one Negro boys died in the fire at Wrightsville near here. No claim was filed in the death of one youth,

“Commission Chairman Dave L. Ford of Fort Smith said that a decision on the claims probably would not be handed down until September after the commission has studied attorneys’ briefs during a summer recess. Any claims allowed by the commission would have to be ratified through appropriations of the 1961 Legislature. The commission must rule first on whether the state was liable in the deaths. If the state is held liable, then the amount of awards will be fixed. Ford said the entire decision would be announced at one time.

“Opening day testimony yesterday centered on the locking of the boys in the dormitory for the night several hours before the fire broke out. Witnesses also testified to what they said was inadequate fire protection.” (Hope Star, AR. “Hearings Are Resumed in School Claims.” 6-23-1959, pp. 1-2.)

2008, Arkansas Times: “Fourteen bodies lie side by side and unmarked in a mass grave at Haven of Rest Cemetery on Twelfth Street. The only proof of their burial is a page from the graveyard’s 1959 records. The 14 were teen-agers when they burned to death in a fire March 5, 1959, at the Negro Boys Industrial School at Wrightsville. In all, 21 boys between the ages of 13 and 16 perished, incinerated in a dorm room whose doors were padlocked on the outside.

“The teens had been incarcerated (“Industrial School” was euphemistic) for homelessness, petty theft and pranks — one boy had been caught soaping windows during Halloween. Many were products of broken homes and turned over by their parents. Forty-eight of the boys who were in the “Big Boys Dorm” managed to escape what press reports called the ‘holocaust.’

“Seven boys had private funerals. The remaining 14 — burned so badly their bodies could not be identified individually — were buried five days after the fire, their interment paid for by the state of Arkansas. During the funeral, the Arkansas Gazette reported, a mother cried out, “Oh Lord! You done burned up my baby!”

“In her anguish, she may have blamed the Lord. But a Pulaski County grand jury finding issued the following September said the state employees in charge of the training school, the legislature, the governor and even ‘the people of Arkansas, who did nothing about’ conditions at the decrepit facility, were responsible for the deaths. The General Assembly should have been ‘ashamed,’ the grand jury report said. Responsible — but not liable. The grand jury returned no indictment. No criminal charges were ever filed, despite the fact that Gov. Orval Faubus, standing by the smoldering ruins at dawn the day of the fire, declared the tragedy ‘inexcusable.’

“Forty-nine years later, the event is little remembered. But Luvenia Lawrence, 81, whose son, Lindsey Cross, died in the fire, and Lindsey’s brother Frank Lawrence, who was 4 years old when his brother perished, remember. They found the record of the graves at Haven of Rest. At their request, the graves, hard by a ditch, are now marked with yellow flagging tape.

“Frank Lawrence, who plans to make a documentary film about the event, has taken the story to print and television media in Little Rock. Two TV stations have aired interviews with Lawrence in recent weeks, and he’s working with the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center to record the story there. At one time, Luvenia Lawrence says, a stone at Rest Haven marked the graves. A stone would be a start in reminding the people of Arkansas of the terrible event, she and her son say.

“Lindsey Cross was 15 when he was trapped by the fire. He’d been sent to Wrightsville after a neighbor of the Lawrences — in the Tie Plant area of North Little Rock — told authorities he’d stolen money from a store’s cash register while two other boys distracted the white owner. Luvenia Lawrence said she could only remember going to ‘an office’ before her son was sent to Wrightsville. It seemed strange to her that there had been no trial.

“But there wouldn’t have been. It took a lawsuit, filed by Grif Stockley for Legal Aid in the late 1980s, to create legal redress for juveniles in Arkansas. Until then, county judges had jurisdiction, appointing referees (usually not lawyers) to decide the fate of juveniles. Pulaski County’s referee — Judith Rogers, who later became a juvenile judge — testified for Stockley. In 1987, the state Supreme Court ruled the system unconstitutional and ordered juvenile cases heard in chancery courts (now circuit courts).

“Also buried at Haven of Rest: Charles L. Thomas, 15, of Little Rock; Frank Barnes, 15, Lake Village; R.D. Brown, 16, Emerson; Jessie Carpenter Jr., 16, Forrest City; Joe Crittenden, 16, Blytheville; John Daniel, 16, El Dorado; Willie G. Horner, 16, North Little Rock; Roy Chester Powell, 16, Forrest City; Cecil Preston, 17, Blytheville; Carl E. Thornton, 15, North Little Rock; Johnnie Tillison, 16, LaGrange (Lee County); Edward Tolston Jr., 15, Wilmot, and Charles White, 15, Malvern.

“Two of the dead boys were only 13 years old. One of those children, William Loyd Piggee of DeWitt, had been sent to Wrightsville after he’d been seen riding a bike that belonged to a white boy. But William Piggee often rode that bike, which had belonged to a white friend whose family his mother worked for. The friend had a new bike, and the two boys used to ride their bikes together. The mother of the white boy had reported the bike stolen. But when she discovered William had taken it, she told authorities that it was all right for him to ride it. But, according to William’s brother, Larry Piggee of Houston, Texas, the police insisted that the bike was stolen and William had to pay. He paid big. After the fire, ‘police came to our house at 5 a.m. and knocked on our door. They talked with my mother and father, told them they needed someone to come down and take a look.’ ‘They had a number of bodies stretched out,’ Piggee said. His mother and father ‘picked out the body of a person that had a Bible in the breast pocket because my brother always carried one.’….

“The building burned entirely to the ground. The fire broke out in what was known as the ‘Big Boys Dorm’ between 3:15 a.m. and 4 a.m., news reports said. A vocational teacher who normally slept in a room next to the dorm had been in the hospital for two weeks before the fire broke out. There were only two exits from the dorm, and both were padlocked, so that exit from the inside was impossible. The boys who escaped did so by prying loose mesh metal screens from two of the dorm windows….

“Stories told by employees of the Industrial School — all of whom were black — conflicted. School Superintendent L.R. Gaines first told the press the doors to the dorm had been locked, but later in the day said one door had been open. School farm manager Wilson Hall first said he’d been sleeping in the classroom adjacent to the dorm when the smoke woke him up, but later told the school board that he’d discovered the fire when he went to the building to make sure the substitute caretaker was there. Hall said he found the dorm doors locked when he arrived, so he ran to the windows and ‘started pulling screens.’ ‘They were screaming and hollering in there,’ the Gazette quoted Hall as saying. ‘You couldn’t make out any words or anything.’

“Lee Andrew Austin, the livestock supervisor, told the board that he’d left the building — which included the dorm, a chapel, the caretaker’s office and workshop — in the middle of the night because the lights went out and he needed to fetch a flashlight from his home, which was near the dorm. So though Hall, Austin and Gaines all had keys to the door, according to Gaines, none, apparently, was in the dorm when the blaze began.

“A transcript of the school board’s interviews with school employees shows that the board believed Austin was negligent. ‘Isn’t it a fact that had you functioned properly, this tragedy would not have occurred?’ chairman Alfred Smith asked Austin. ‘Well, Mr. Smith,’ Austin replied, ‘I would like to know how I could have prevented it.’

“The Little Rock Fire Department — which initially declined to answer the call to the fire since it was outside the city limits — said the blaze probably started in the attic above the empty caretaker’s room off the classroom and close to the entrance to the dorm. One teen-ager died at the door to the dorm; when the door collapsed in the fire, the body fell partially into the classroom.

“A survivor told the Gazette that the boys fought each other to get out the windows. ‘There was a whole lot of screaming,’ he said. He saw four boys hitting at the mesh-covered windows trying to escape. The boys who did escape stood barefoot in the cold and stunned, watching as the building burned to the ground….

“Superintendent Gaines and his wife, Mary, a school teacher who was also on the payroll at Wrightsville, resigned in April. Gaines did not testify before the grand jury; he was reported in ill health and living in Chicago.

“News of the fire made front pages across the nation. Faubus was already known to the country as the governor who’d sent troops to Central High to keep nine black students from attending school. News of the fire fueled national sentiment that Arkansas put little value on the life of its black residents….

“Most of the survivors filed claims with the state Claims Commission seeking $25,000; one asked for $50,000 and there were claims for sums in between. The commission, ruling in September 1959, awarded $2,500 to the estates of each of the 21 boys. It reached that amount, it said, by reasoning that ‘negro boys, all minors, incarcerated… [were] contributing little and often nothing to the support of their parents. The Supreme Court of Arkansas has often affirmed the verdict of juries awarding $2,000 to $3,000 damages for the death of a child.’

“The commission found that the ‘direct and proximate cause of the death of the 20 [sic] decedents was the carelessness and negligence of the officers, agents and employees of the State of Arkansas, employed at the Arkansas Negro Boys’ Industrial School,’ and cited the facts that the boys were locked in with no means of escape, that there were no buckets, water or fire extinguishers, fire drills or other safety precautions.

The State in its composite wisdom has seen fit to create schools for both races and for both sexes commonly referred to as Industrial Schools, where youths may be sent for correctional training. It is the custom of Arkansas to place negro supervisors over the negro children under the supposition that members of that race would be best able to cope with the problem and give to their wards the best training available in order to prepare the inmates for worthy citizenship. … So far as the record in this case indicates the persons in authority had every right to believe that L.R. Gaines and his assistants would operate the school in a proper, safe and efficient manner. … However, on the night of said holocaust, L.R. Gaines and his staff ignored their duty to their wards … .”

“Though commission records show that the family of Lindsey Cross was awarded $3,400 — the estate award plus $600 to Luvenia Lawrence for mental anguish and $300 to his estranged father, Charlie Cross — Lawrence says she only got $1,000, from a white man who showed up at her door one day and gave her a check. She claims she took the check to the Square Deal Pawn Shop to cash it, where the owner, Robert Itzkowitz, asked, ‘Is this all Faubus gave you for killing your son?’ Total claims paid by the state ranged from $3,300 to $5,900….” (Arkansas Times. “Stirring the ashes. A victim’s relative sparks another look at a state tragedy.” 3-2-2008.)

Sources

Arkansas Times. “Stirring the ashes. A victim’s relative sparks another look at a state tragedy.” 3-2-2008. 3-7-2013: http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/stirring-the-ashes/Content?oid=949040

Blytheville Courier News, AR. “Blytheville Mother Sues State for $25,000.” 4-7-1959, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=88214881&sterm=

Blytheville Courier News, AR. “Mass Funeral For Fire Victims.” 3-10-1959, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=88214724&sterm=wrightsville+fire

Bugbee, Percy. “Fire Protection Developments in 1959.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 53, No. 3, Jan 1960, pp. 177-180.

Harrison Daily Times, AR. “21 Youths Perish in Fire at State Negro Training School.” 3-5-1959, p. 1. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=138604187&sterm=

Harrison Daily Times, AR. “Fire Probe Under Way at Negro School.” 3-9-1959, p. 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=138604203&sterm=wrightsville+fire

Hope Star, AR. “Boy’s School Pay Probe to Continue.” 4-21-1959, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=121745681&sterm=wrightsville+fire

Hope Star, AR. “Hearings Are Resumed in School Claims.” 6-23-1959, pp. 1-2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=123768420&sterm=wrightsville+fire

Hope Star, AR. “School Fire Disaster Report Again Delayed.” 3-25-1959, p. 2. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=121745593&sterm=wrightsville+fire

Hope Star, AR. “Will Discuss Rebuilding Boys School.” 3-6-1959, p. 4. Accessed at: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=121745535&sterm=wrightsville+fire

National Fire Protection Association. “Large Loss of Life Fires of 1959.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 53, July 1960, pp. 7-38.

National Fire Protection Association. Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association. Vol. 52, No. 4, April 1959.

Wilson, Rexford. “Institutional Fire Protection Is Different.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 55, No. 1, July 1961, pp. 28-36.