In 1900, the Mississippi legislature appropriated funds to purchase
approximately 4,000 acres of farmland in Sunflower County, the heart of
the Delta. The state's aim was to establish the Mississippi State
Penitentiary, commonly known as Parchman because of the hamlet where it
is located. From its inception, the prison farm was designed to preserve
the vestiges of the antebellum South. Legislators believed they had
designed the ideal correctional institution because Parchman would turn
a profit, preserve the planter culture, and keep the black population
enslaved in the Jim Crow era. The 1930s represented a turning point in
the life of the prison. During this time, the Depression caused a drop
in profits, some political leaders initiated measures to improve the
standards of care for the inmates, and the New Deal's Works Progress
Administration Writers' Project brought musical historians to Parchman.