Magnolia Oil-Tank Fire Kills Three Firefighters

Arkansas history commemorated for September 20 includes a 1957 federal court order that prevented Gov. Orval Faubus and National Guard commanders from blocking the integration of Little Rock Central High School, prompting Faubus to withdraw the Guard. Other notable events include a Confederate cavalry attack near Helena in 1862, the 1944 deaths of three Magnolia firefighters in an oil-storage-tank blaze, and the 1923 convictions of three men in the murders of two Little Rock detectives. The accompanying September 19 chronology highlights the broader Little Rock desegregation crisis, including Faubus’s legal challenge to federal Judge Ronald Davies and a 1958 referendum in which voters supported keeping the city’s high schools closed rather than integrating them. It also notes a 1917 strike by Fort Smith telephone operators and a 1942 attack on Jehovah’s Witnesses in Little Rock.