The Arkansas Department of Correction will dedicate a memorial to the African-American boys who died at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School where the Wrightsville Unit is located.
The Wrightsville 21 Memorial Dedication will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the Wrightsville Unit, 8400 Highway 386 at Wrightsville, according to a news release.
On March 5, 1959, twenty-one African-American boys died in a fire at the Arkansas Negro Boys Industrial School (http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5500). The location is the current site of the Wrightsville Unit. The Department of Correction will dedicate a memorial in honor of those youth.
“The memorial, which includes a landscaped sitting area, has been installed at the entrance to the unit,” according to the release.
The ceremony will include a brief program followed by a ribbon cutting. Family members of the youth, Grif Stockley, author of Black Boys Burning, staff from the governor’s office, members of the Board of Corrections, and members of the General Assembly have been invited to attend.