Pearl, Mississippi - History

History

The area was settled from the 1860s as a rural farming community close to the Pearl River. Population was sparse until the mid-1900s brought in people and industries from the state capital of Jackson in Hinds County. Thereafter, growth in the area came from the urban expansion of the capital, control of flood threats from the Pearl River, accessible interstates and Jackson-Evers International Airport.

On September 16, 1968, a meeting was held to discuss the incorporation of Pearl, with all but 6 of the 657 attending residents favoring incorporation. A "Boundary Committee" proposed several different possible boundaries a little more than a month later, and the following January the community voted for a 11 square miles (28 km2) boundary that included the Pearl River to Airport Road, excluding East Jackson and all areas south of Interstate 20 except Cunningham Heights and Grandview Heights. A majority at that meeting also agreed on naming the city "Pearl", in preference to the also-proposed "Riverview" and "Brightsville", and named the first mayor, Harris Harvey, and council members Jimmy Joe Thompson, W.D. McAlpin, James Netherland, Ophelia Byrd, Mack C Atwood, W.L. Maddox and Bobby Joe Davis. With the Mississippi Supreme Court ruling of June 5, 1973, the incorporation could go ahead. A week later, the charter was issued, and on June 29, 1973 Governor William Winter presided over the first annual Pearl Day Celebration, with the swearing in of the city's new officials, who met for the first time on July 3, 1973.

• The Pearl Municipal Separate School District was created on May 18, 1976 by an Ordinance of the City of Pearl Mayor and Board of Alderman.
• The first franchise by the City of Pearl for cable television to be installed was granted on July 6, 1976.
• The Pearl Chamber of Commerce was formed on August 24, 1978.
• Pearl voters approved a $1.5 million bond issue to construct a new junior high school on December 1, 1981.
• The Rankin County campus of Hinds Community College opened in Pearl on July 1, 1983.
• A Community Center is next door to City Hall. Its clock tower includes inscriptions of the names of graduates of Pearl High School for the period 1949 through 1989 while the high school occupied this site.
• The Mississippi Braves baseball team play in Trustmark Park in Pearl.
• A 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2) library opened near City Hall on July 18, 2005.