Tyronza, AR

Tyronza is a quiet, tight-knit town in the Arkansas Delta, best known for its outsized role in American labor history. Right on South Main Street sits the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, housed in the historic Mitchell-East Building. Back in 1934, a group of Black and white farmers gathered at a nearby schoolhouse to form the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. That meeting sparked a national movement for sharecroppers' rights, cementing this small Poinsett County community in the history books.

ATTRThomas R Machnitzki (thomas@machnitzki.com) / CC BY 3.0

Today, the museum is run by Arkansas State University and serves as the town's cultural centerpiece, showcasing the Delta's agricultural heritage, music, and oral histories. Outside the historic center, wide-open fields define the surrounding landscape. Situated right off Interstate 555 at Exit 8, Tyronza offers a calm, rural pace of life while keeping residents within an easy forty-minute drive of both Jonesboro and the Memphis metro area.