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

Pine Bluff native and World War I veteran, Leroy Alfred Johnston, was a member of the Harlem Hell Fighters military band that introduced...