Tragedy in Wrightsville: 69 Black boys locked in a dormitory where a mysterious fire started, 21 boys Burned to death
It has been over 55 years since 21 teen-aged boys imprisoned at the so-called Negro Boys Industrial School were burned to death in their locked dormitory.
March 5th, 1959, 69 African American boys, ages 13 to 17, were padlocked into their dormitory for the night at the Negro Boys Industrial School in Wrightsville
Around 4 a.m., a fire mysteriously ignited, forcing the boys to fight and cut their way out of the burning building.
It’s an event in history that is probably forgotten or unknown by many to date, but it’s that moment that claimed the life of 21 boys
It was a carefully calculated murder that involved 21 boys but was organized to kill 69 that were housed inside of this dormitory,” said Frank Lawrence. He has made it his life’s mission to uncover the truth surrounding what he names Arkansas ” secret holocaust”,
That March morning in 1959, when the smoke cleared, the boys’ who burned to death were found piled on top of one another in the corner of the dormitory. The 48 who had survived managed to flee by prying off mesh metal screens from two windows.
Most of the boys that were murdered had run back to a corner of the building. In fact, we know there was no one there to unlock the doors, ” even when they were doors said, Stockley. Also found out that the doors were locked from outside
The awful incident briefly made headlines that also brought attention to the squalor and terrible conditions in which the boys lived.
The situations were bad to a point where when all 69 boys go to bed at night, in a space barely big enough for them to move around and they are one foot apart from one another and you had to get up at night and go to the bathroom, they had to defecate in buckets,” said Frank Lawrence.
The boys also moved around in rags. They had one 30-gallon water tank for them to take baths,” said Stockley.
The boys in the school were perpetrated to be orphaned, homeless, or for committing offenses described as mischief and alleged petty crimes.
In an ironic twist, the land in which the school stood is now the Arkansas Department of Correction Facility Wrightsville Unit where you won’t find a plaque, to indicate that the boys ever lived or died there.
Some of the boys are Charles White, 15; Edward Tolston Jr., 15; Johnnie Tillison, 16; Lindey Cross, 14; Charles L. Thomas, 15; Frank Barnes, 15; R.D. Brown, 16; Jessie Carpenter Jr., 26; Joe Crittenden, 16; John Daniel, 16; Willie G. Horner, 16; Roy Chester Powell, 16; Cecil Preston, 17; Carl R. Thornton, 15;”
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