The Entire Story of Parchman — Mississippi's Plantation Prison and the Men Who Sang Its Blues

0:00 Booka White at Parchman 1:06 The origins of Parchman Farm 3:31 The plantation prison system 7:08 Lomax recordings and prison music 8:41 Booka White and the blues record 14:36 Freedom Riders at Parchman 16:17 Courtroom reform and modern crisis 29:55 The song Parchman left behind I trace the buried history of Parchman Farm, a prison whose songs became famous while the people who created them remained trapped inside its walls. I follow Parchman from its origins as a state-owned replacement for convict leasing through its plantation labor system, racial segregation, armed trusties, and the recordings made by John Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Booka White. I also examine the Freedom Riders, Gates v. Collier, the prison’s death house, and the continuing legal and humanitarian crisis. I end with the farm’s surviving music, its modern band, and the question Parchman still leaves behind: who gets to decide what a place like this was for?