Editing Flora, Mississippi (section)

==History==
Graves in Flora's cemetery date to 1821.<ref name="HP">{{cite web | title = Historic Preservation | publisher = Town of Flora | url = http://www.florams.com/historic.html | accessdate = February 1, 2014 | archive-date = February 10, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150210093015/http://florams.com/historic.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> A post office was established in 1883. That same year, Flora became a stop on the newly constructed [[Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad]]. The railroad depot is now a museum and is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Madison County, Mississippi|National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="HP"/><ref>{{cite web | last = Howe | first = Tony | title = Flora, Mississippi | publisher = Mississippi Rails | url = http://www.msrailroads.com/Towns/Flora.htm | accessdate = February 1, 2014}}</ref>

Flora was incorporated in 1886.<ref name="HP"/>

===Mississippi Ordnance Plant===
[[File:Mississippi - Flora - NARA - 23941665 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Mississippi Ordnance Plant]]
In 1941, the Mississippi Ordnance Plant was constructed north of Flora to produce propellant and igniter charges for large-caliber guns during World War II. The site also had firing ranges for sub-machine guns, rifles, anti-aircraft guns, live grenades, and demolition explosives.<ref name="MOP">{{cite web | title = Mississippi Ordnance Plant | publisher = U.S. Department of Defense | url = http://www.denix.osd.mil/perchloratesummaries/upload/MS_Mississippi-Ordnance-Plant.pdf | access-date = February 1, 2014 | archive-date = September 25, 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120925054945/https://www.denix.osd.mil/perchloratesummaries/upload/MS_Mississippi-Ordnance-Plant.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> A notable employee was science fiction writer [[Cyril M. Kornbluth]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Rich | first = Mark | title = C.M. Kornbluth: The Life and Works of a Science Fiction Visionary | publisher = McFarland | year = 2009 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XxTSJcvYJYQC&pg=PP1| isbn = 9780786457113 }}</ref>

The plant was operated by [[General Tire]]. It generally hired African-American men only for jobs as janitors, yard workers, freight loaders, truck drivers and maintenance workers. They were allowed to work in the higher paying production jobs only if white men were not available. African-American women were employed only as maids and cafeteria helpers. In 1942, a local group of African-American citizens met to protest the company's policy.<ref>{{cite book | last = Mitchell | first =  Clarence Maurice | title = The Papers of Clarence Mitchell, Jr: 1942-1943 | publisher = Ohio University Press | year = 2005 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Sn4v5HoKM5cC&pg=PP1| isbn = 9780821416037 }}</ref>

After the war, the Defense Department declared the site as surplus in 1945. The army certified it as "completely decontaminated".<ref name="MOP"/> But standards since then are more refined, and the site was dangerously contaminated due to the production and heavy armaments.

In 1947, the Mississippi Department of Education planned to adapt part of the plant into a [[vocational school]] for African Americans, until white residents protested to the governor, stating that property values would be ruined.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Altschuler | first1 = Glenn | last2 = Blumin | first2 = Stuart | title = The GI Bill: The New Deal for Veterans | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2009 | url = https://archive.org/details/gibillnewdealfor00alts| url-access = registration | isbn = 9780199720422 }}</ref>

One of the reinforced bunkers eventually became used for the "Southern Vital Records" storage facility. In 1977, a local high school student found an abandoned [[M2 light tank|M-2A2 tank]] in a wooded area.<ref>{{cite web | last = Grayson | first = Walt | title = Look Around MS: WWII | website=Msnewsnow.com | date = August 15, 2006 | url = http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/5284526/look-around-ms-wwii}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last = Husted | first = Glenn | title = Armed Forces Museum is Home to One of First Production-Model Tanks | publisher = Mississippi National Guard | date = September 1, 2011 | url = http://ms.ng.mil/aboutus/installations/shelby/directorates/ss/pao/reveille/PDF/090111.pdf | access-date = February 22, 2014 | archive-date = March 1, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140301144654/http://ms.ng.mil/aboutus/installations/shelby/directorates/ss/pao/reveille/PDF/090111.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref>

===National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility===
In 2008, the [[United States Department of Homeland Security|U.S. Department of Homeland Security]] announced that the Flora Industrial Park was one of six locations in the United States being considered for the construction of a new [[National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility]]. Some people were concerned about dangers from biological research.

Flora's mayor, Scott Greaves, had responded to opposition to the facility in 2007, saying, "Education is the whole key to it. You have to find the people who are concerned and educate them. In the end, you're still going to have a few idiots." [[Manhattan, Kansas]], was finally selected as the site for the new facility.<ref>{{cite web | title = Some Sure, Some Not, of Lab's Safety | publisher = Athens Banner-Herald | date = September 16, 2007 | url = http://onlineathens.com/stories/091607/news_20070916068.shtml}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Kingsbury | first = Nancy | title = Biological Research: Observations on DHS's Analyses Concerning Whether Foot and Mouth Disease Research Can be Done as Safely on the Mainland as on Plum Island | publisher = General Accounting Office | date = 2009 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PzF6HAJSJ7wC&pg=PP1| isbn = 9781437920987 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility | publisher = U.S. Department of Homeland Security | url = https://www.dhs.gov/national-bio-and-agro-defense-facility | access-date = February 1, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130503012952/http://www.dhs.gov/national-bio-and-agro-defense-facility | archive-date = May 3, 2013 | url-status = dead }}</ref>