Timeline

The Agricultural Wheel

The Agricultural Wheel was a state farmers’ union, founded in the Arkansas Delta, to improve its members’ economic situation through cooperative buying, the teaching of progressive farming methods, and working for the elimination of the one-crop system and anaconda mortgages.

Elaine Race Riot of 1919

On September 30, 1919, approximately 100 African Americans, mostly sharecroppers on the plantations of white landowners, attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church, 3 miles north of Elaine, AR.

An Insurrection

The Phillips County sheriff sent out a posse to arrest those suspected of being involved in the shooting. The fear of African Americans, who outnumbered whites by a ratio of ten to one, led an estimated 500 to 1,000 armed white people to travel to Elaine to put down what was characterized by them as an “insurrection.”

Murder

An Arkansas Gazette employee alleged that soldiers had “committed one murder after another with all the calm deliberation in the world, either too heartless to realize the enormity of their crimes, or too drunk on moonshine to give a continental darn.” Some suggest that as many as 200 African-Americans were killed.

The Johnstons

Dr. D. A. E. Johnston was a successful dentist and property owner in Helena. One brother had fought in France and the other, Louis, was a prominent physician from OK who had come home to visit. On 9/30/19 the brothers went squirrel hunting early in the morning, starting for home in the evening, wholly ignorant of the trouble at Hoop Spur.

Jailed in Helena

Within days of the shoot-out, 285 African Americans were taken from the temporary stockades to the jail in Helena although the jail had space for only 48. Two white members of the Phillips County posse stated in sworn affidavits that they committed acts of torture.

The Trials

White attorneys from Helena were appointed to represent the first 12 black men to go to trial. One attorney admitted to the jury that he had not interviewed any witnesses. He made no motion for a change of venue, nor did he challenge a single prospective juror, taking the first 12 called.

Released

On 1/14/25, Gov. Thomas McRae ordered the release of the remaining defendants granting them indefinite furloughs after they pled guilty to second-degree murder. Other defendants were released. The riot marked one of the first times a federal court intervened against a racially biased southern court.

Flood of 1927

The Flood of 1927 was the most destructive and costly flood in Arkansas history and one of the worst in the history of the nation.

H.L. Mitchell (1906-1989)

Harry Leland "H.L." Mitchell was the son of James Young Mitchell, a tenant farmer and preacher in Halls, TN. Mitchell moved to AR in 1928 after his father suggested that he take over the clothes-pressing machine in his barbershop, later prospering in the dry-cleaning business.

H. Clay East (1900-1993)

The son of a farmer and store merchant, Clay East returned to Tyronza to operate Lion gasoline station after attending Gulf Coast Military School. In 1932 he was elected township constable and named deputy sheriff and town marshall.

The Great Depression

The Great Depression began in August of 1929, when the United States economy first went into an economic recession.

Bank of Tyronza Fails

The region was pulled into national crises when the New York Stock Exchange crashed on October 29, 1929. A severe drought in 1930 resulted in it being called “the year of no cotton.” On November 19, 1930, John Emrich’s Bank of Tyronza closed its doors

Drought

The region experienced a drought in 1931, the worst on record for Arkansas. The state had its own financial problems and could offer little to farmers facing starvation.

Tyronza Socialist Party Organized

Tyronza residents, Harry Leland Mitchell and Alvin Nunally applied for and received a charter in 1931 to organize a chapter of the Socialist Party.

Arkansas Socialist Party Convention

The Arkansas Socialist Party Convention was held in a big tent on the ball field in Tyronza with Norman Thomas, candidate for President of the United States in 1932 as the featured speaker.

Election of President Franklin Roosevelt

The election of President Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 brought hope for the suffering counties in the Mississippi River Delta.

The New Deal

In response to the Great Depression, a series of domestic programs focused on relief, recovery, and reform, were enacted between 1933 and 1936 via laws passed by Congress and executive orders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Agricultural Adjustment Act

The Agricultural Adjustment Act of the New Deal offered subsidy payments to farmers for plowing up part of their cotton.

Eviction

When Hiram Norcross, one of Tyronza’s large landowners, threw 23 families of sharecroppers and their belongings out of their homes and onto the side of the road, Mitchell and East started an effort to expose the trouble with the relief program and to convince the AAA officials to enact badly-needed changes.

Southern Tenant Farmers Union

To secure the sharecroppers’ rightful potion of the AAA payments, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, (STFU), was established just outside of Tyronza on July 18, 1934, in a small schoolhouse by eighteen men, seven black and eleven white.

Southern Tenant Farmers Union Moves

The Southern Tenant Farmers Union moved its headquarters from Mitchell-East Building in Tyronza to Memphis, TN, after threats from the night riders.

1935 Strike

From its Memphis headquarters, STFU organized a peaceful cotton picker’s strike in 1935 that resulted in an increase in pay to the pickers per pound of cotton.

Myrtle Lawrence

Myrtle Terry Lawrence was known as the most effective white female organizer in the STFU. While Mitchell referred to her as a “Tobacco Road character” for her habit of chewing tobacco, he admitted that she was an excellent organizer, sending her to the Southern Summer School for Women Industrial Workers in North Carolina in 1937.

March of Time

March of Time was a monthly documentary series produced by CBS from 1935 to 1951 that addressed social issues of the time.

Eleanor Roosevelt

As secretary of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, H.L. Mitchell, was asked in 1937 to come to Washington D.C. to speak to Eleanor Roosevelt on behalf of homeless farm families.

STFU Membership

Southern Tenant Farmers Union claimed a membership of over 30,000 members in south and southwestern states.

Flood of 1937

Excessive rain in the upper Mississippi and Ohio River in January 1937 resulted in another significant flooding event in these river basins. Frozen ground contributed to the runoff into the rivers. Rain was reported for 27 out of 31 days during January.

Sharecroppers Evicted

On January 10 more than 1500 people piled their belongings along US Highways 60 and 61 in the lowlands of southeast MO, also known as the Bootheel, protesting landowner decisions to hire day laborers to replace their tenants.

Moving North

Sharecroppers/tenant farmers left the farms during WWII to work in industries in the North.

National Farm Labor Union

The Southern Tenant Farmers Union changed its name to National Farm Labor Union and worked with fruit pickers in California.

PBS The Great Depression Documentary Airs

Episode 5, "Mean Things Happening," of PBS's ambitious seven-hour "The Great Depression" documentary examined the plight of farm and steel workers.

Tyronza Residents Urge City to Preserve History of STFU

The presence of the PBS crew in Tyronza sparked the interest of local residents in preserving the history of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union.

Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas

In 2001 the Mitchell-East Building was listed on 1999-2001 Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas’ list of Most Endangered Historic Places.

Tyronza City Council Donates Building and Land

On March 8, 2001, the Tyronza City Council donated the Mitchell-East building and land to Arkansas State University for a museum.

ANCRC Grant Awarded

Property was acquired immediately adjacent to the Mitchell-East Building, including the former Tyronza Bank building, a vacant lot adjacent to the bank, and a strip of land running behind the property.

ANCRC Grant Awarded

In 2003 Arkansas State University was awarded an Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council (ANCRC) grant in the amount of $315,000.

NEH Grant Awarded

Arkansas State University received up to $1,000,000 in NEH funds that had to be matched 3-to-1. The funds raised supported the restoration of two historic sites - the 1858 Lakeport Plantation near Lake Village and the 1930s Mitchell-East Building in Tyronza.

Cotton Mural Painted

In 2006 the cotton mural was painted on the outside wall of the STFM by local artist Connie Watkins of Paragould.

Grand Opening of Museum

On October 6, 2006, the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum opened.

National Register of Historic Places

In 2010 the STFM was entered in the National Register of Historic Places.