Politixia
Important Arkansas historical events and significant anniversaries for September 19, with notable births and deaths of people with Arkansas connections for this date. Information is drawn from state archives, historical societies, contemporary newspapers and other media archives, and legal records. Much of this information comes from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, an online publication. ChatGPT has collected this data.
1863 — Company E of what became Crawford’s Arkansas Cavalry regiment was organized at Magnolia on September 19, 1863, largely from Columbia County men.
1917 — Fort Smith telephone operators strike. Women telephone operators who had organized a local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers walked off their jobs September 19 after Southwestern Bell dismissed two women active in organizing. The dispute became part of the wider Fort Smith General Strike and an important episode in Arkansas labor and women’s history.
1942 — Jehovah’s Witnesses attacked in Little Rock. On September 19, a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses, denied use of Traveler Field for a convention, gathered at an Asher Avenue service station and was attacked; some members were beaten and shot. Police reportedly arrested Witnesses rather than their attackers.
1957 — Little Rock Crisis litigation escalated. Gov. Orval Faubus filed an affidavit September 19 accusing federal Judge Ronald Davies of prejudice, one day before a hearing over National Guard interference with Central High desegregation. Separately that day, ten Black ministers sued the Arkansas State Sovereignty Commission, alleging constitutional violations.
1958 — Little Rock voters backed closed schools. By roughly a 2-to-1 margin, voters approved keeping the city’s public high schools closed rather than allowing court-ordered integration—the defining event of Arkansas’s “Lost Year.”
1960 — Kennedy campaigns in Arkansas. Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kennedy led a parade on Texarkana’s East Broad Street September 19 while campaigning and helping open the Four States Fair.
LINE-OF-DUTY DEATH
Luxora Volunteer Fire Department Lt. Larry Dale “Muff” Mustion Jr. died September 19, 2025, after responding to a recurring grass fire.
NOTABLE BIRTHS
Little Rock Nine member Jefferson Thomas (1942)
Civil-rights lawyer Joseph Robert Booker (1895)
Physician/public-health leader Joseph Bates (1933)
NOTABLE DEATHS
Arkansas-born former U.S. Rep. Effiegene Locke Wingo, of Lockesburg, died in 1962.
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