On June 9, 1985, Extra 4835 North, a Cotton Belt freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed about 3.3 miles southwest of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The next morning, the burning wreckage sparked an explosion that “hurled debris hundreds of feet and shook buildings five miles away." Image Credit: www.nytimes.com On June 9, 1985, at 1:33 p.m., Extra 4835 North, the St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company (also known as the Cotton Belt Railway Company) freight train, derailed abo

Clayton Brothers, John M. Clayton and William H. H. Clayton went from serving in the Union Army to becoming policy-makers as Arkansas political leaders, active in the Senate, House of Representatives, and much more. Left to Right: John Middleton Clayton & William Henry Harrison Clayton Image Credit: www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net Twin brothers John Middleton Clayton and William Henry Harrison Clayton were born on October 13, 1840, to Ann Clarke Clayton and John Clayton in Del

The Old Miller Theater holds some of the most important African American history in the city and state as an event center hosting vaudeville shows, national speakers, movies, boxing, political rallies, concerts, conventions, socials, as well as providing office space for lawyers, doctors, a casket company and others. The Miller Theater when it was briefly rented as The Gem. Image Credit : www.arkansasonline.com On February 6, 1910, the Arkansas Democrat reported that Dr. S.

For almost fifty years, from the 1940s to 1986, “Fiddling Rufus” Brewer  played and sang at blues and country venues across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. He played at Gathright's Saturday Night Jamboree, the Louisiana Hayrides, and on radio shows across Arkansas. Image Credit: https://racquetball69.weebly.com M. A. “Fiddlin Rufus” Brewer was born on January 7, 1913, in Arkansas to Luther Brewer and Myrtle Davis. In the 1940s, Brewer began his professional music career a

Charles Brown, a blues singer and pianist recorded iconic hits like Merry Christmas Baby, Black Night, Hard Times, and Please Come Home For Christmas. Throughout the 1940s to 1960s, Brown’s signature soft-toned, slow-paced blues-club style influenced famous blues performances like Ray Charles and Sam Cooke.

In the early 1950s, Pine Bluff native Allan Bellamy opened the Nugent Grocery store which later became a chain of 28 supermarkets, boasting more than 650 employees called The Mad Butcher. Image Credit: www.arkansasonline.com Image Credit: reddit.com & facebook.com Allan H. Bellamy Jr. was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on June 25, 1927, to Allan Bellamy Sr. and Fannie Jackson Bellamy Nugent. Bellamy was raised and educated in Pine Bluff. In 1945, he graduated from Pine Bluff

In 1962, the teenage rockabilly band, The Playboys recorded a 45 record featuring their rockabilly crossover song , Baby Doll  with Vee-Eight Records in Nashville, Tennessee. Image Credit: www.psychofthesouth.com Jackie Hendrix founded The Playboys, a rockabilly-inspired garage band from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. After graduation, most of the members of The Playboys moved away, leaving Hendrix to find new members and reform the group.  Fortunately, a folk and pop singing group, m

In the 1930s, Pine Bluff native Janet Chandler starred in a number of Western films and melodramas like The Golden West, ​​ House of...

On the evening of March 21, 1860, the Arkansas Traveler,  a steamboat worth over $12,000 ( approximately $468,399.04  today) and insured...

During his career, Julius wrote more than 40 books, taught history college courses for over thirty years, and received some of the most acclaimed awards in both writing and education. Lester, a prolific writer, photographer, activist, and esteemed educator, had both Jewish roots and spent his childhood summers in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Pine Bluff native Benjamin J. Altheimer Sr. was a prominent lawyer and philanthropist who founded prominent law firms in Chicago. He also created the Ben J. Altheimer Foundation which utilized funding from agricultural innovation to create programs that benefit citizens and students in Jefferson County, Arkansas.

During the 1920s, Pine Bluff, like many other Southern cities, experienced a surge in the number of white residents joining the Ku Klux...

Jennie Lee Gorton and D. Gorton, mother and son artists, who used their crafts to record the history of the South. Jennie Lee Gorton was...

In 1930, after more than 20 years, professional baseball found its way back to Pine Bluff with the Pine Bluff Judges who won the Cotton...

In the spring of 1976, former Pine Bluff Commercial writer Louis Guida recorded blues artists all across Arkansas to produce the 1983 blues album Keep It to Yourself, Arkansas Blues Volume 1: Solo Performances. 33 years later, he utilized the 1976 recordings, producing Meet Me in the Bottom: Arkansas Blues, Volume 2 - The Bands.

In May of 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the due process protection against coerced confessions in the pivotal court case, Payne vs. Arkansas, which originated from a court case in Pine Bluff.

In 1986, Edward J. Perkins became the first black ambassador assigned to the Republic of South Africa, where he was an ardent opponent of apartheid. Throughout his 24 year career, he also served as a U.S. foreign ambassador to Ghana, Liberia, the United Nations, and Australia.

Katherine Stinson was a trailblazing stunt pilot, flight instructor, skilled mechanic, Postal Service airmail pilot, World War I Red Cross worker, and accomplished Pueblo-style architect. She was the fourth woman in U.S history to become a licensed pilot, the first woman to master the loop-the-loop flying maneuver, and the first person to skywrite at night.

Pine Bluff boasts a rich history of numerous film and television shows created, starred in, developed and/or inspired by Pine Bluff...

Pine Bluff native, Dr. George Edmund Haynes  was a pioneering sociologist, social worker, educator, policy expert, and co-founder and...