Missouri Pacific Park (1930-1938)
52-585: Forrest/Bell Park (1904-1905) The Pine Bluff Judges were a minor league baseball team, based in Pine Bluff, Arkansas . They existed between 1930 and 1955 and were primarily an affiliate of the St. Louis Browns/Baltimore Orioles playing in the Cotton States League . The team joined the Cotton States League in 1930 and promptly won the league championship that season. When the league folded after
104-537: A combined force of federal troops and freedmen (former slaves freed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln 's recent Emancipation Proclamation ) near Jefferson Court-House . In the final year of the Civil War, the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment (composed primarily of escaped slaves from Arkansas and Missouri ), was the first regiment of U.S. Colored Troops to see combat. It was dispatched to guard Pine Bluff and eventually mustered out there. Because of
156-420: A cost of $ 350 million, it will employ over 1,100 full-time staff. The Pine Bluff Convention Center is one of the state's largest meeting facilities. The Arts and Science Center features theatrical performances and workshops for children and adults. Pine Bluff did also boast the only Band Museum in the country but it has closed. Other areas of interest include downtown murals depicting the history of Pine Bluff,
208-431: A household in the city was $ 30,415, and the median income for a family was $ 39,993. Males had a median income of $ 38,333 versus $ 28,936 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 17,334. About 24.3% of families and 30.6% of the population were below the poverty line , including 45.6% of those under age 18 and 13.7% of those age 65 or over. Pine Bluff had 23 homicides in 2021. Pine Bluff had 23 murders in 2020 -
260-586: A mob of hundreds rapidly escalated to thousands of whites vehemently demanding execution, despite Kelly's pleas of innocence and lack of trial. The angry mob eventually forced over his custody from an Officer adamantly attempting to deliver the suspect to the jail house, then the crowd watched enthusiastically as he was hung and riddled with bullets. That same year the state adopted a poll tax amendment that disenfranchised many African-American and poor white voters. The Election Law of 1891 had already made voting more difficult and also caused voter rolls to decrease. With
312-549: A number of significant construction projects. Benny Scallion Park was created, named for the alderman who brought a Japanese garden to the Pine Bluff Civic Center. The city has not maintained the garden, but a small plaque remains. In the late 1980s, The Pines, the first large, enclosed shopping center, was constructed on the east side of the city. The mall attracted increased shopping traffic from southeast Arkansas. The most important construction project of
364-700: A player, coach , and manager Blackburn posted a 2–2 record with a 6.82 earned run average in five pitching appearances with the Orioles, allowing 30 runs (25 earned) on 34 hits and 12 walks while striking out one batter in 33 innings of work . On July 16, 1897, Cap Anson of the Chicago Cubs became the first player in major league history to reach 3,000 hits when he singled off Blackburn. Blackburn also pitched for 34 different minor league teams from 1892 through 1909 and managed six of its teams in 1896 (two), 1903 and from 1907 to 1909, retiring at
416-608: A project to collect and publish oral histories of former slaves. Writers were sent throughout the South to interview former slaves, most of whom had been children before the Civil War. When the project was complete, Arkansas residents had contributed more oral slave histories (approximately 780) than any other state, although Arkansas' slave population was less than those of neighboring Deep South states. African-American residents of Pine Bluff/Jefferson County contributed more oral interviews of Arkansas-born slaves than any other city/county in
468-519: A rate of 56.5 murders per 100,000 people. The national average was 6.5 murders per 100,000 people in 2020. Jefferson County is located in the heart of a rich agricultural area in the Arkansas River Basin. The leading products include cotton , soybeans , cattle , rice , poultry , timber and catfish . Major area employers include Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Simmons First National Corp., Tyson Foods , Evergreen Packaging,
520-494: A refugee camp, and 24 black men, women and children were found hanging from trees in one of the worst mass lynchings in U.S. history. The rate of lynchings of black males was high across the South during this period of social tensions and white resistance to Reconstruction. Armistad Johnson was lynched in 1889, and John Kelly and Gulbert Harris in 1892 in front of the Jefferson County Courthouse, after
572-476: Is land and 1.2 square miles (3.1 km ) (2.65%) is water. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 41,253 people, and 16,086 households. As of the census of 2010, there were 49,083 people, 18,071 households, and 11,594 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,048.8 inhabitants per square mile (404.9/km ). There were 20,923 housing units at an average density of 447.1 units per square mile (172.6 units/km ). The racial makeup of
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#1732798583684624-746: Is the tenth-most populous city in the US state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County . It is the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock - North Little Rock -Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area . The population of the city was 41,253 in the 2020 census . The city is situated in the Southeast section of the Arkansas Delta and straddles
676-583: Is the first female African American mayor. She was elected in 2016. Beginning around 2020, Utah based entrepreneur John Fenley, owner of the music streaming service Murfie , began buying properties in Pine Bluff for redevelopment. Pine Bluff is on the Arkansas River ; the community was named for a bluff along that river. Both Lake Pine Bluff and Lake Langhofer are situated within the city limits, as these are bodies of water which are remnants of
728-487: The Arkansas River . The area along the Arkansas River had been inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples of various cultures. They used the river for transportation as did European settlers after them, and for fishing. By the time of encounter with Europeans, the historical Quapaw were the chief people in the area, having migrated from the Ohio River valley centuries before. The city of Pine Bluff
780-622: The Arkansas Timberlands region to its west. Its topography is flat with wide expanses of farmland, similar to other places in the Delta Lowlands. Pine Bluff has numerous creeks, streams, and bayous, including Bayou Bartholomew , the longest bayou in the world and the second most ecologically diverse stream in the United States. Large bodies of water include Lake Pine Bluff, Lake Langhofer (Slack Water Harbor), and
832-648: The Army Air Corps . At one time 275 aircraft were being used to train 758 pilots. Approximately 9,000 pilots had been trained by the time the school closed in October 1944. The Army broke ground for the Pine Bluff Arsenal on December 2, 1941, on 15,000 acres (61 km ) bought north of the city. The arsenal and Grider Field changed Pine Bluff to a more diversified economy with a mixture of industry and agriculture. The addition of small companies to
884-2699: The Meridian Millers . The Pine Bluff Lumbermen existed between 1903-1905 and were members of the Cotton States League . In 1904, The Lumbermen finished with a final record of 73-43 winning their first Cotton States League Pennant, the first championship pennant in the state of Arkansas. The Lumbermen were disbanded in July 1905 due to financial hardships. Pine Bluff MLB Players 1954 - Frank Lucchesi - Manager - Philadelphia 70-72, Texas 75-77, Chicago Cubs 87 1952 - Bob Hale - Baltimore 55-56, 58, Cleveland 60-61, New York Yankees 61 1952 - Hillis Layne - Washington 41 1952 - Jim Snyder - Player Minnesota 61-62, 64 Manager - Seattle 88 1951 - Bud Black - Detroit 52, 55 1950 - Harry Chozen - Cincinnati 37 1950 - Ryne Duren - Baltimore 54, Kansas City 57, NYY 58-61, LAA 61-62, Philadelphia 63-64, Cincinnati 64, Washington 65, Philadelphia 65 1949 - Ed Albrecht - St. Louis 49-50 1940 - Dewey Adkins - Washington 43, Chi Cubs 49 1940 - Stan Goletz - CHI WS 41 1940 - William Red Rollings - Boston 27-28 1940 - Dave Bartosch - St. Louis 45 1939 - Andy Cohen - Player - New York Giants 26, 28-29, Manager - Philadelphia 57 1939 - Ray Hathaway - Brooklyn 45 1939 - Stan Klopp - Boston 44 1939 - Dud Lee - St. Louis 20-21, Boston 24-26 1939 - Jimmy Shevlin - Detroit 30, Cincinnati 32, 34 1937 - Les Willis - Cleveland 47 1936 - Tony Robello - Cincinnati 33-34 1935 - Lena Styles - Philadelphia 19-21, Cincinnati 30-31 1934 - Hugo Klaerner - CHI WS 34 1934 - George Scharein - Philadelphia 37-40 1934 - Les Sweetland - Philadelphia 28-30, CHI Cubs 31 1933 - Bob “Casper” Asbjornson - Boston 28-29, Cincinnati 31-32 1933 - Fred Koster - Philadelphia 31 1933 - George Loepp - Boston 28, Washington 30 1933 - Tony Malinosky - Brooklyn 37 1932 - Joe Berry - Chi Cubs 42, Philadelphia 44-46, Cleveland 46 1931 - Tony DeFate - St. Louis 17, Detroit 17 1931 - Rusty Pence - Chi WS 21 1930 - Howie Camp - NYY 17 1908 - Wild Bill Luhrsen - Pittsburgh 13 1905 - Howard Murphy - St. Louis 09 1904 - Bert Blue - Philadelphia 08, St. Louis 08 1904 - Con Lucid - Louisville 1893, Brooklyn 1894, Philadelphia 1896, St. Louis 1897 1904 - Bert Maxwell - Pittsburgh 06, Philadelphia 08, New York Giants 11, Brooklyn 14 1903 - Georgie Blackburn - Baltimore 1897 1903 - Tim O’Rourke - Syracuse 1890, Columbus 1891, Baltimore 1892-1893, Louisville 1893-94, St. Louis 1894, Washington 1894 Pine Bluff, Arkansas Pine Bluff
936-599: The Pine Bluff Arsenal and the Union Pacific Railroad . It is the large number of paper mills in the area that give Pine Bluff its, at times, distinctive odor, a feature known prominently among Arkansans. In 2009, Pine Bluff was included on the Forbes list of America's 10 most impoverished cities. Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff was the first purpose-built casino in Arkansas. Completed in 2020 at
988-706: The Trail of Tears waterway who were being forcibly removed by the US Army from the American Southeast to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. From 1832 to 1858, Pine Bluff was also a station on the passage of Seminole and Black Seminoles , who were forcibly removed from Florida to the Territory. They included the legendary Black Seminole leader John Horse , who arrived in the city via
1040-607: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and public works funding, Pine Bluff built new schools and a football stadium, and developed Oakland Park as its first major recreation facility. To encourage diversification in agriculture, the county built a stockyard in 1936 to serve as a sales outlet for farmers' livestock. From 1936 to 1938, the WPA through the Federal Writers Project initiated
1092-734: The 1870s onward, community leaders constructed large Victorian -style homes west of Main Street. Meanwhile, the Reconstruction era of the 1870s brought a stark mix of progress and challenge for African Americans. Most blacks joined the Republican Party, and several were elected in Pine Bluff to county offices and the state legislature for the first time in history. Several black-owned businesses were also opened, including banks, bars, barbershops, and other establishments. But in postwar violence in 1866, an altercation with whites ensued at
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#17327985836841144-670: The 1932 season, so did the team. However, the Waco Cubs of the Dixie League moved to town the following season and took on the Judges name. They remained in the East Dixie League the following season and then joined the reformed Cotton States League in 1936. The team was inactive between 1941 and 1947 during World War II but rejoined the league for the 1948 season. In 1955, they moved to Meridian, Mississippi and became
1196-743: The 1960s and 1970s, major construction projects in the region included private and public sponsors: Jefferson Hospital (now Jefferson Regional Medical Center), the dams of the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System on the Arkansas River (which was diverted from the city to create Lake Langhofer), a Federal building, the Pine Bluff Convention Center complex including The Royal Arkansas Hotel & Suites, Pine Bluff Regional Park, two industrial parks and several large churches. The 1980s and 1990s brought
1248-448: The 1990s was completion of a southern bypass, designated part of Interstate 530 . In addition, a highway and bridge across Lock and Dam #4 were completed, providing another link between farm areas in northeastern Jefferson County and the transportation system radiating from Pine Bluff. Through a private matching grant, a multimillion-dollar Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas was completed downtown in 1994. In 2000, construction
1300-712: The Branch Normal School of the Arkansas Industrial University, a historically black college . Founded as Arkansas's first black public college, today it is the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff . Pine Bluff and the region suffered lasting effects from defeat, the aftermath of war, and the trauma of slavery and exploitation. Recovery was slow at first. Construction of railroads improved access to markets, and with increased production of cotton as more plantations were reactivated,
1352-510: The Democratic Party consolidating its power in what became a one-party state, the atmosphere was grim toward the end of the 19th century for many African Americans. Democrats imposed legal segregation and other Jim Crow laws. Bishop Henry McNeal Turner 's "Back to Africa" movement attracted numbers of local African-American residents who purchased tickets and/or sought information on emigration. Arkansas had 650 emigrants depart to
1404-755: The Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum, Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Railroad Museum. George Blackburn (baseball) George W. Blackburn [ Smiling George ] (September 21, 1869 – December 29, 1938) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Baltimore Orioles in the 1897 season. A native of Ozark, Missouri , he spent 17 years in baseball as
1456-766: The Union forces, Pine Bluff attracted many refugees and freedmen after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in early 1863. The Union forces set up a contraband camp there to house the runaway slaves and refugees behind Confederate lines. After the war, freed slaves worked with the American Missionary Association to start schools for the education of blacks, who had been prohibited from learning to read and write by southern laws. Both adults and children eagerly started learning. By September 1872, Professor Joseph C. Corbin opened
1508-454: The area to provide for flood control and protect from channel shift. One of the world's longest individual levees at 380 miles runs from Pine Bluff to Venice , Louisiana . Pine Bluff is the largest city in a three-county MSA as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau including Jefferson , Cleveland , and Lincoln counties. The Pine Bluff MSA population in 2000 was 107,341 people. The Pine Bluff MSA population in 2007 dropped to 101,484. Pine Bluff
1560-433: The area, making it by 1890 the state's third-largest city. The first telephone system was placed in service March 31, 1883. Wiley Jones , a freedman who achieved wealth by his own business, built the first mule-drawn, street-car line in October 1886. The first light, power and water plant was completed in 1887; a more dependable light and water system was put in place in 1912. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, economic expansion
1612-556: The bluff. In 1829 Thomas Phillips claimed a half section of land where Pine Bluff is located. Jefferson County was established by the Territorial Legislature on November 2, 1829, and began functioning as a county April 19, 1830. At the August 13, 1832, county election, the pine bluff settlement was chosen as the county seat. The Quorum Court voted to name the village "Pine Bluff Town" on October 16, 1832. Pine Bluff
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1664-563: The city was 75.6% Black or African American , 21.8% White , 0.2% Native American , 0.63% Asian , 0.01% Pacific Islander , 0.68% from other races , and 1.1% from two or more races. 1.5% of the population were Latino of any race. There were 18,071 households, out of which 28.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.3% were married couples living together, 27.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.6% had someone living alone who
1716-490: The city's business district grew rapidly. The Masonic Lodge, built by and for the African-American chapter in the city, was the tallest building in Pine Bluff when completed in 1904. The Hotel Pines, constructed in 1912, had an intricate marble interior and classical design, and was considered one of Arkansas' showcase hotels. The 1,500-seat Saenger Theater , built in 1924, was one of the largest such facilities in
1768-501: The city, leaving a small oxbow lake (later expanded into Lake Pine Bluff). River traffic diminished, even as the river was a barrier separating one part of the county from the other. After many years of regional haggling, because the bond issue involved raised taxes, the county built the Free Bridge, which opened in 1914. For the first time, it united the county on a permanent basis. African Americans in Pine Bluff were damaged by
1820-472: The colony of Liberia in West Africa, more than from any other state in the United States. The majority of these emigrants came from the black-majority Jefferson, St. Francis, Pulaski, Pope, and Conway counties. According to historian James Leslie, Pine Bluff entered its "Golden Era" in the 1880s. Cotton production and river commerce helped the city draw industries, public institutions and residents to
1872-512: The commencement program for Arkansas AM&N College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff ). The decade of the 1960s brought heightened activism in the civil rights movement: through boycotts and demonstrations, African Americans demanded an end to segregated public facilities and jobs. Some whites responded with violence, attacking demonstrators, and bombing a black church in Pine Bluff in 1963. Some civil rights demonstrators were shot. Local leaders worked tirelessly, at times enlisting
1924-461: The economy began to recover. The first railroad reached Pine Bluff in December 1873. This same year Pine Bluff's first utility was formed when Pine Bluff Gas Company began furnishing manufactured gas from coke fuel for lighting purposes. The state's economy remained highly dependent on cotton and agriculture, which suffered a decline through the 19th century. As personal fortunes increased from
1976-530: The historical Arkansas River channel. (The former is a man-made expansion of a natural oxbow; the latter was created by diking the old channel after a man-made diversion.) Consequently, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (or the Arkansas Delta ) runs well into the city with Bayou Bartholomew picking up the western border as a line of demarcation between the Arkansas Delta and the Arkansas Timberlands . A series of levees and dams surrounds
2028-610: The industrial base helped the economy remain steady in the late 1940s. Defense spending in association with the Korean War was a stabilizing factor after 1950. In 1957, Richard Anderson announced the construction of a kraft paper mill north of the city. International Paper Co. shortly afterward bought a plant site five miles east of Pine Bluff. Residential developments followed for expected workers. The next year young minister Martin Luther King Jr. addressed students at
2080-569: The problems of economic conditions during the Great Depression . Pine Bluff residents scrambled to survive. In 1930, two of the larger banks failed. The state's highway construction program in the later 1920s and early 1930s, facilitating trade between Pine Bluff and other communities throughout southeast Arkansas, was critical to Jefferson County, too. After the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, he launched many government programs to benefit local communities. Through
2132-548: The state's disfranchisement in 1891–1892 and exclusion from the political system. But they continued to work for their rights; they joined activists in Little Rock and Hot Springs in a sustained boycott of streetcars, protesting passage in 1903 of the Segregated Streetcar Act, part of a series of Jim Crow laws passed by the white-dominated legislature. They did not achieve change then. Development in
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2184-510: The state. The city served to compile a valuable storehouse of oral slave narrative material. During the 1933 Mississippi River flood, country singer Johnny Cash evacuated to Pine Bluff. World War II brought profound changes to Pine Bluff and its agriculture, timber and railroad-oriented economy. The Army built Grider Field Airport which housed the Pine Bluff School of Aviation and furnished flight training for air cadets for
2236-623: The state; it operated the state's largest pipe organ. When Dollarway Road was completed in 1914, it was the longest continuous stretch of concrete road in the United States. The first radio station (WOK) broadcast in Arkansas occurred in Pine Bluff on February 18, 1922. Two natural disasters had devastating effects on the area's economy. The first was the Great Flood of 1927 , a 100-year flood . Due to levee breaks, most of northern and southeastern Jefferson County were flooded. The severe drought of 1930 caused another failure of crops, adding to
2288-511: The steamboat Swan in 1842. Pine Bluff was prospering by the outbreak of the Civil War ; most of its wealth was based on the commodity crop of cotton. This was cultivated on large plantations by hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans throughout the state, but especially in the Delta. The city had one of the largest slave populations in the state by 1860, and Jefferson County, Arkansas
2340-416: The support of national figures such as Dick Gregory and Stokely Carmichael , to help bring about change over the period. Voter registration drives that enabled increased black political participation, selective buying campaigns, student protests, and a desire among white local business leaders to avoid damaging negative media portrayals in the national media led to reforms in public accommodations. During
2392-452: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.14. In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.5% under the age of 18, 13.4% from 18 to 24, 24.3% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.6 males. The median income for
2444-419: Was also fueled by the growing lumber industry in the region. Situated on the Arkansas River, Pine Bluff depended on river traffic and trade. Community leaders were concerned that the main channel would leave the city. The United States Army Corps of Engineers built a levee opposite Pine Bluff to try to keep the river flowing by the city. During a later flood, the main channel of the river moved away from
2496-447: Was completed on the 43,000-square-foot (4,000 m ) Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center. Carl Redus became the first African American mayor in the city's history in 2005. The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff recently opened a $ 3 million business incubator in downtown Pine Bluff. Also, a new $ 2 million farmers market pavilion was opened in 2010 on Lake Pine Bluff in downtown Pine Bluff. Shirley Washington
2548-647: Was founded on a high bank of the Arkansas River heavily forested with tall pine trees. The high ground furnished settlers a safe haven from annual flooding. Joseph Bonne, a Métis fur trader and trapper of mixed Quapaw and colonial French ancestry, settled on this bluff in 1819. After the Quapaw signed a treaty with the United States in 1824 relinquishing their title to all the lands which they claimed in Arkansas , many other American settlers began to join Bonne on
2600-491: Was incorporated January 8, 1839, by the order of County Judge Taylor. At the time, the village had about 50 residents. Improved transportation aided in the growth of Pine Bluff during the 1840s and 1850s. With its proximity to the Arkansas River, the small town served as a port for travel and shipping. Steamships provided the primary mode of transport, arriving from downriver ports such as New Orleans . From 1832 to 1838, Pine Bluff residents would see Native American migrants on
2652-584: Was second in cotton production in the state. When Union forces occupied Little Rock , a group of Pine Bluff residents asked commanding Major General Frederick Steele to send Union forces to occupy their town to protect them from bands of Confederate bushwhackers . Union troops under Colonel Powell Clayton arrived September 17, 1863, and stayed until the war was over. On October 25, 1863, Confederate cavalry , led by Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke , attempted to expel Union occupation forces commanded by Colonel Powell Clayton ; but were defeated by
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#17327985836842704-614: Was the fastest-declining Arkansas MSA from 2000 to 2007. The Pine Bluff area is also a component of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area which had a population of 902,443 people in the 2014 U.S. census estimate. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 46.8 square miles (121 km ), of which 45.6 square miles (118 km )
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