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

Pine Bluff native Jeff Donaldson was a renowned African American visual artist and art educator who co-founded the AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists) and partnered with 11 other artists to create Chicago’s famous Wall of Respect in the 1960’s which featured over 50 well-known African Americans known for their promotion of Black excellence.

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...

Dorothy R. Leavell has been the publisher of the Chicago  and Gary Crusader newspapers, two historic, family-owned Black publications for...

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.

On July 29, 1947, the Pike-Roane duel between Arkansas lawyers Albert Pike and John Roane took place in Indian Territory along the...

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.

Effie Mae Martin known professionally as Rosie Lee Tompkins was a renowned African American quilt maker who changed the face of...

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...

Despite the Confederate army’s repeated attempts to weaken Union strongholds and regain control of cities along the Arkansas River, Pine...

Pine Bluff native, Fred “Deacon” Johnson was an African American entertainer and music contractor who established  the Deacon Johnson...

The cakewalk was a mid-19th century dance originally performed at get-togethers by the enslaved on Southern plantations. During this...

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.

Pine Bluff native, James Lamar Stone, received some of the U.S. Army’s highest honors which include a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart. He also received a Medal of Honor for defending a vital military outpost during the Korean War.

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.