Sunflower, Kansas Sunflower, Kansas Sunflower was a rural community in Center Township in Mitchell County, Kansas, United States, established in 1890. Walter and Honora (Tilton) Cooke came to Mitchell County, Kansas in 1884. They leased with an intent to buy the NE 1/4 of Section 36 in Center Township from the State of Kansas. By 1890, a small community had formed. A blacksmith, creamery, school and small store had been established by 1895. The Cooke's purchased the property on February 23, 1897 for $1,154.00. On April 27, 1898, the Sunflower community was recognized by the U.S. Government by installing a post office.
Mississippi State Penitentiary program after December 31, 1894, and finally had to build prisons to accommodate convicted persons. The State of Mississippi began to acquire property to build its first correctional facilities. But, as Douglas Blackmon explores in his book, "Slavery by Another Name", a study of the convict lease system, the South kept a system of convict labor in place until World War II. Generations of black men were trapped in the system. In 1900 the Mississippi State Legislature appropriated US$80,000 for the purchase of the Parchman Plantation, a property in Sunflower County. What is now the prison property was located at