Arkansas State University is restoring the historic Mitchell-East 
Building in Tyronza, Arkansas, for use as a museum and 
educational center.  The building housed a dry cleaner run by 
H. L. Mitchell and a service station run by Clay East, two of the 
principal founders of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union.  
The Union was established July 13, 1934, by 11 whites and 
7 blacks at Sunnyside School near Tyronza.  While the school 
is now gone, much of the Union's business was conducted at 
the Mitchell-East Building. 
 
This building will operate as a museum focusing on the farm labor movement in the South and 
the tenant farming and sharecropping system of agriculture.  Facilities will include exhibition 
space, a visitor center, classroom space, maintenance space, restrooms and parking facilities.  
Exteriors are being restored to their 1930s appearance with original windows, signage, colors, 
gas pumps, lighting and other features.  (Research indicates that the building once housed a 
Lion Gas Station.)
 
Arkansas State University has an opportunity to work with community leaders in the Poinsett 
County area who are committed to telling the tenant-farming story of the 1930s, which is not 
being told anywhere in the country.  Additionally, Poinsett County officials are interested in 
linking the project to other small museums in the area (including the Delta Museum at Marked 
Tree and Museum USA in Lepanto). Arkansas State University will work with all these museums 
to create an outreach model for the Delta.  
 
An ongoing oral history project on agriculture in the Delta will provide significant opportunities 
for acquiring and interpreting materials.  While many of the original papers of the Southern 
Tenant Farmers' Union are at the University of North Carolina, Arkansas State University has 
acquired microfilm (66 reels) of these papers for study by scholars, and has the opportunity 
to acquire additional original material from H. L. Mitchell's son who resides in Canada.  
 
While sufficient funds are available for restoration of the property and initial development of the 
museum, operating funds are required for the start-up of the museum.  Over the long term, 
additional operating funds will be raised through admissions, gift shop sales, classes, workshop 
and seminars, private gifts and grants, and special fund-raising events.  The project will serve as 
a major economic catalyst for the Poinsett County region.