Editing Flora, Mississippi (section)

===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>