Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Jericho Jericho, AR

Jericho is a town in northern Crittenden County in the Arkansas Delta, on Arkansas Highway 77 between Interstate 55 and the Mississippi River, about ten miles north of West Memphis.

Jericho was settled in the 1840s by riverboat captain Stephen Stonewall James and his brother John C. James, who built the settlement's first cotton gin and sawmill and named it for the city mentioned in the Bible.

Although settled in the 1840s, Jericho was not incorporated until June 10, 1986; a renovated cotton gin shed was converted into the town hall, which was dedicated in 1990.

The 2020 census counted 98 people in Jericho, down from 210 in 1990; in 2000 the town had 184 people living in 66 households.

Jericho's population is largely African American — about 94 percent of residents identified as Black or African American alone in the 2020 census.

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (the Frisco) ran through Jericho in the 1880s, and a post office was established there in 1886, though it closed in 1943.

In the 1920s, Jericho was home to the East Arkansas Baptist Association Academy, one of the largest African American schools in the area, enrolling more than 100 students in some years, many of whom boarded with local families.

The Lake Grove Missionary Baptist Church was established in Jericho in 1890, followed by an African Methodist Episcopal church in 1899.

Fires in the 1930s and again in 1946 destroyed many of Jericho's stores, hollowing out its small business district.

Jericho students attend the Marion School District, whose comprehensive high school is Marion High School.