Lawrence Free State High School are known as the "Firebirds". Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs. Lawrence Free State was established in 1997 in response to overcrowding at Lawrence High School, the only public high school in Lawrence at the time. The College Board recognized Free State High with the 2007-08 Siemens Award for Advanced Placement participation and performance. One high school in each state receives this honor and a $1,000 grant for math and science education. The Firebirds compete in the Sunflower League and are classified as a 6A school, the largest classification in Kansas
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