THE WORST FIRE RECORD EVER, 69 BLACK TEENAGE BOYS WERE PADLOCKED INSIDE A DORMITORY,
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THE WORST FIRE RECORD EVER, 69 BLACK TEENAGE BOYS WERE PADLOCKED INSIDE A DORMITORY,
A mysterious fire occurred at night while they were sleeping. 21 of them died while 48 managed to escape by prying off the mesh metal screens from the windows. It is the worst fire record ever in history.In 1959, 69 Black teenage boys (ages 13-17) were pad locked inside a dormitory at the Negro Boys Industrial School in Wrightsville.
A mysterious fire occurred at night while they were sleeping. 21 of them died while 48 managed to escape by prying off the mesh metal screens from the windows. It is the worst fire record ever in Arkansas history.
The boys were committed for a variety of reasons. Some were orphans or homeless.
Others were there because of petty crime. One boy named William Piggee rode on a white boy's bike even though the mother said it was ok.
"The science of preserving a crime scene was in existence in 1959. Yet the very morning these boys were killed, they were dismantling this whole scene with hoses, rakes and shovels.
They were tearing it apart like they were trying to cover up something," said Frank Lawrence whose brother (Lindsey Cross) died in the fire.
The grand jury found that several individuals and agencies were responsible, but in the end, no criminal charges were filed.
The names of those who died:
Lindsey Cross, 14; Charles L. Thomas, 15; Frank Barnes, 15; R.D. Brown, 16; Jessie Carpenter Jr., 16; Joe Crittenden, 16; John Daniel, 16; Willie G. Horner, 16; Roy Chester Powell, 16; Cecil Preston, 17; Carl E. Thornton, 15; Johnnie Tillison, 16; Edward Tolston Jr., 15; and Charles White, 15. William Piggee, 13 (the boy incarcerated for riding a white boy’s bike); O.T. Meadows, 13; Henry Daniels, 15; John Alfred George, 15; Roy Hegwood, 15; Willie Lee Williams, 15; and Gyce.
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