Appalachian Community Histories – Pope, Panola County: Railroads, Cotton, Churches, and the Schools of a Mississippi Town
In the southern portion of Panola County, Mississippi, the small community of Pope developed beside a railroad that helped transform the surrounding countryside during the nineteenth century. What began as a settlement associated with railroad construction and agricultural land gradually became an incorporated municipality with churches, schools, merchants, mills, and a cotton trade that connected local farmers to markets beyond northern Mississippi. Although Pope never grew into a large commercial center, its history provides an important example of how transportation, agriculture, religion, education, and community organizations shaped the development of rural towns throughout the region.
Established in 1858 according to an early Mississippi historical encyclopedia and incorporated on April 4, 1872, Pope experienced many of the changes that affected small Southern communities over the following century. The Civil War and Reconstruction altered the surrounding agricultural economy, cotton production supported local businesses, churches became important centers of community life, and the public school system reflected the racial divisions that characterized Mississippi before integration. By the middle of the twentieth century, the town had developed educational facilities that included a high school, gymnasium, auditorium, and vocational buildings, while a separate African American school served children in the surrounding area.
Much of Pope’s history survives through records preserved by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the University of Mississippi, Mississippi State University, and the Mississippi Secretary of State. A particularly valuable account appeared in Dunbar Rowland’s 1907 historical encyclopedia, which identified early settlers, businesses, churches, and educational institutions. When examined alongside firsthand recollections, church histories, government records, and photographs, these sources reveal a community whose historical importance extends well beyond its relatively small population.
The Railroad and the Establishment of Pope
The development of Pope began during a period when railroad construction was changing the economic geography of northern Mississippi. Before rail transportation became widely available, agricultural communities depended heavily upon wagon roads and navigable waterways to transport crops and manufactured goods. These methods could be expensive and inconvenient, particularly for farmers who needed to move large quantities of cotton to regional markets.
The arrival of the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad during the 1850s created new opportunities for settlement and commerce throughout Panola County. Railroad stations became convenient locations for merchants, warehouses, cotton buyers, and other businesses serving the surrounding agricultural countryside. Communities such as Batesville, Courtland, and Pope benefited from their positions along the developing transportation corridor.
The Panola Partnership’s historical account associates Pope’s origins with W. E. Pope, a civil engineer from Georgia who reportedly supervised construction of the railroad roadbed during the 1850s. According to this local tradition, the settlement was initially known as Pope Station and later became Pope Depot, reflecting the importance of the railroad to its early identity.
A different explanation appears in Dunbar Rowland’s Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, published in 1907. Rowland reported that Pope was established in 1858 on land belonging to B. H. Pope and that the community received its name in his honor.
The difference between these accounts raises an interesting historical question. Rowland’s description emphasizes the landowner upon whose property the settlement developed, while the Panola Partnership connects the name to a railroad engineer involved in constructing the transportation route. Both explanations may preserve elements of local history, but the available published evidence does not establish whether B. H. Pope and W. E. Pope were related or determine conclusively which individual gave the town its name.
Original property deeds, railroad construction records, and contemporary newspaper references could eventually clarify the matter. Until those records are examined, the two accounts are best understood as competing explanations of the town’s origins.
Regardless of the precise origin of its name, Pope developed at a location where railroad transportation could connect nearby farms and timber operations with regional commercial centers. Its position along the line gave the settlement an advantage that would remain important throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction
Pope’s earliest years coincided with the growing sectional conflict that eventually produced the American Civil War. Established shortly before the war began in 1861, the settlement occupied a region where cotton agriculture, slavery, and railroad transportation were closely connected to the wider Southern economy.
The Panola Partnership preserves a local tradition concerning W. E. Pope and a Confederate group reportedly called “Pope’s Devils.” According to that account, Pope and several followers joined the Confederate cause after the outbreak of the war, and the community’s name became associated with their activities.
Although the story remains part of local historical memory, the available account does not identify a specific Confederate regiment or provide military records establishing the group’s organization, membership, or wartime service. The tradition therefore requires further verification before it can be treated as a documented military history.
The war’s consequences extended far beyond the activities of soldiers. Throughout Panola County, enslaved African Americans performed agricultural labor that supported plantation production and contributed to the wealth of landowners and merchants. Emancipation brought the legal institution of slavery to an end, but it did not immediately eliminate the economic inequality, racial discrimination, and political intimidation that influenced the lives of formerly enslaved families.
One of the most valuable firsthand accounts associated with the Pope area comes from Silas Knox, a formerly enslaved man interviewed during the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s. Knox recalled being born at Pope Station or approximately eight miles from the settlement. He identified his father as John Knox and his mother as Caroline Rand, and remembered that his family had been enslaved by a landowner named John Knox.
Although Knox acknowledged that he had been young during slavery, his recollections preserve important details about daily life and the transition to freedom. He remembered living with his grandfather, obtaining water from the plantation’s main house, working around cotton fields, and witnessing changes as the Civil War came to an end.
One particularly striking memory concerned the departure of the plantation’s white owners. Knox recalled that he and his grandfather went to obtain water one morning and discovered that the family had left during the night. He described another man, Dr. Scott, subsequently assuming control of the property and directing the laborers who remained.
Knox’s recollections also illustrate the intimidation experienced by African Americans after emancipation. He described members of the Ku Klux Klan riding through a pasture near his home and recalled violence directed against a Black resident elsewhere in the county. His testimony suggests how freedom could coexist with fear, particularly when armed groups attempted to enforce racial control through intimidation and violence.
He also remembered voting Republican during the earlier postwar period, although by the time of his interview he stated that he was no longer permitted to vote. This recollection reflects the broader history of African American political participation during Reconstruction and the subsequent disfranchisement that developed under Mississippi’s system of racial segregation.
Knox’s interview does not describe every aspect of Pope’s history, and his memories were recorded many decades after the events themselves. Nevertheless, the account provides an important perspective often missing from traditional local histories, demonstrating that the experiences of Black farming families were as much a part of the region’s development as those of its merchants, landowners, and railroad officials.
Incorporation and the Early Town
Following the Civil War, Pope continued developing as a settlement serving the surrounding agricultural countryside. The formal incorporation of the community on April 4, 1872, marked an important step in its establishment as a municipality.
The incorporation date is preserved in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Official and Statistical Register, which identifies Pope among the state’s incorporated municipalities. Its formal recognition came during Reconstruction, when communities throughout Mississippi were adjusting to new political institutions, changing labor arrangements, and the economic consequences of the war.
Rowland’s 1907 encyclopedia identifies several individuals associated with Pope’s earliest development. Among those named were B. H. Pope, C. F. Chapman, Thomas Pugh, Benjamin Bynum, Sanford Sparks, Dr. L. S. Gartrell, Major D. B. Arnold, Dr. J. J. Houston, Frank Pugh, and William Hawkins.
These names provide a starting point for reconstructing the town’s first generation of residents and business leaders. Although the published account does not provide extensive biographies, it preserves information that might otherwise have disappeared as the community changed.
Rowland identified Broome and Betts as Pope’s first merchants, suggesting that commercial activity developed alongside the railroad settlement. General stores were especially important in communities of this size because they supplied household necessities, agricultural equipment, clothing, and goods that local residents could not easily manufacture themselves.
The same historical account names Dr. L. S. Gartrell as Pope’s first practicing physician. His presence suggests that the growing community had begun developing professional services for residents of the town and surrounding farms.
These early businesses and services helped transform Pope from a railroad stopping place into a recognizable local center. Farmers might visit to purchase supplies or arrange the sale of cotton, while families depended upon the community for religious gatherings, medical assistance, and educational opportunities.
Although the population remained relatively small, the institutions established during these years gave Pope an identity extending beyond the railroad depot from which it had developed.
Cotton, Timber, and the Commercial Economy
Agriculture became one of the most important foundations of Pope’s early economy. The surrounding countryside supported cotton cultivation, while timber resources contributed to the development of logging and sawmilling operations.
The Panola Partnership’s local history identifies logging as an important early industry and describes a transition toward row-crop farming and livestock as timber resources were depleted. Cotton ginning remained a significant activity for decades, connecting Pope with the agricultural economy of the wider county.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Pope had developed several facilities supporting local production. Rowland’s 1907 account identified a gristmill, sawmill, and cotton gin equipped with the Munger system, a form of cotton-ginning machinery associated with the mechanization and improvement of cotton processing.
The gristmill provided a means of processing locally grown grain, while the sawmill supported the conversion of timber into lumber for construction and other purposes. The cotton gin had a particularly important economic function because it separated cotton fiber from seeds and prepared the crop for shipment to commercial buyers.
Rowland reported that approximately 2,000 bales of cotton were shipped annually from Pope during this period. For a community with fewer than two hundred residents recorded in the 1900 census, the figure demonstrates that the town’s commercial importance depended upon the productivity of the surrounding countryside rather than its population alone.
The railroad made this agricultural trade possible on a larger scale. Cotton grown on neighboring farms could be transported into Pope, processed or assembled for shipment, and moved by rail to markets beyond Panola County.
As agricultural production increased, the town also developed financial institutions to serve local businesses and residents. According to Rowland, the Bank of Pope was established in 1904 as a branch of the Bank of Batesville.
The establishment of a local banking operation represented an important development for a small agricultural community. Farmers and merchants often required financial services to manage seasonal expenses, purchase supplies, extend credit, and conduct transactions associated with agricultural production.
Rowland estimated the assessed value of Pope’s real and personal property at approximately $50,000 during the early twentieth century and recorded a municipal tax rate of three mills. These figures provide a rare statistical glimpse into the town’s financial circumstances at a time when cotton and railroad transportation remained central to its economic life.
The local economy was nevertheless vulnerable to developments beyond Pope itself. Cotton prices, agricultural production costs, transportation changes, and conditions in regional markets influenced the fortunes of the businesses and farming families who depended upon the town.
Churches and Religious Life in Pope
Churches became important institutions in Pope during its earliest decades, providing places for worship while also supporting the social relationships that connected families throughout the community.
Rowland reported that Methodists established the first church in Pope, although his account did not identify the exact date of its construction. By the early twentieth century, the town had two churches, reflecting the importance of organized religion in its development.
One of the best-documented congregations is Pope Baptist Church, whose history extends to the Reconstruction period. In 2002, the Mississippi Senate prepared Resolution No. 7 recognizing the congregation’s 130th anniversary and preserving a detailed account of its development.
According to the resolution, Pope Baptist Church was organized in 1872 at Pope Station, the same year that the municipality was incorporated. The church’s early existence was modest, and services were reportedly held only once each month.
The congregation acquired additional property through deeds dated October 2, 1885, and March 7, 1887. By 1887, its membership had reached sixty-five, indicating that the institution had become an established part of the community.
The resolution also preserves information about the church’s early leadership. J. H. Collins served as one of its first pastors beginning in 1872, followed by ministers including W. A. Tucker, H. I. Bryant, W. C. Lattimore, and H. W. Rockett during the later nineteenth century.
Sunday school instruction did not begin until 1911, when J. J. Packer organized a program and became its superintendent. The addition reflected the congregation’s increasing emphasis upon religious education and the participation of younger members.
The church experienced a serious setback in 1915 when wind damaged its building. Rather than ending regular religious services, the congregation temporarily worshipped with the Methodists, an example of cooperation between two of the community’s longstanding religious institutions.
A rebuilt Baptist church was completed in 1924 and included four Sunday school rooms. The building project represented a substantial investment during a period when local congregations frequently depended upon the contributions and labor of their members.
Pope Baptist Church continued operating during the Great Depression, when agricultural communities throughout Mississippi experienced financial hardship. According to the legislative history, the congregation’s membership increased during those difficult years, and its financial condition improved during the following decades.
In 1969, church minutes recorded the payment of its outstanding debt. Further expansion began in March 1982 under the leadership of Mitchell Osborne, when the sanctuary was enlarged to accommodate approximately three hundred people. The project also included brickwork, classrooms, offices, and a fellowship hall.
Another major remodeling effort began in 1997. By the congregation’s 130th anniversary in 2002, the church reported more than three hundred members, a remarkable development from the small congregation established at Pope Station in 1872.
The church’s history illustrates the importance of religious institutions in rural Mississippi. Even as agriculture, education, and commerce changed, congregations continued to provide spaces for worship, social gatherings, mutual assistance, and the preservation of local traditions.
The Development of Education in Pope
Education emerged as another important part of Pope’s development during the nineteenth century. According to Rowland’s 1907 account, the community’s first school was taught by Mrs. Bethel around 1866, shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War.
The surviving historical description provides little additional information about this early institution. Nevertheless, the reference establishes that formal instruction was available in the settlement before its incorporation in 1872.
During the following decades, public education expanded across Panola County, although the development of schools was influenced by agricultural wealth, population distribution, local taxation, and the racial segregation that became entrenched in Mississippi.
By the middle of the twentieth century, Pope possessed a substantial educational complex. Some of the most important surviving evidence comes from the John Elon Phay Collection at the University of Mississippi, which documents school buildings and classrooms through photographs taken during the 1940s and 1950s.
In February 1955, Phay and the University of Mississippi’s Bureau of Educational Research photographed educational facilities throughout Panola County as part of a broader investigation of the state’s public schools.
The photographs associated with Pope include its high school, main school building, auditorium, gymnasium, teacherage, and vocational shop facilities. Some images document the exterior appearance of buildings, while others provide views of their interiors.
The collection identifies Pope High School as an institution serving grades one through twelve. Its buildings demonstrate the importance of providing both elementary and secondary education within a rural community.
The presence of a gymnasium and auditorium suggests that the school complex supported activities beyond conventional classroom instruction. Such facilities could accommodate athletics, assemblies, performances, and other events associated with school and community life.
The vocational shop buildings also reveal the importance of practical education during a period when agricultural and mechanical skills remained closely connected to employment opportunities in rural Mississippi.
Another feature of the campus was its teacherage, a residence associated with the school. Housing for educators was an important consideration in some rural districts, particularly when communities attempted to attract and retain qualified teachers.
These photographs preserve evidence of a substantial educational investment in Pope during the decades following the town’s early railroad and agricultural development.
Pope Chapel and Segregated Education
The history of education in Pope cannot be understood without examining the racial separation that characterized Mississippi’s public schools before integration.
During the first half of the twentieth century, Mississippi maintained separate educational facilities for white and African American children. Although both systems operated under public education laws, they frequently differed in funding, buildings, equipment, transportation, and the educational opportunities available to students.
The John Elon Phay Collection provides direct evidence of this separation in the Pope area. While the photographs of Pope School are cataloged as representing facilities for white students, a separate series documents Pope Chapel School, which served African American children in Panola County.
The distinction between the two institutions is important. The university’s records identify Pope and Pope Chapel separately, and the precise geographical relationship between the campuses should not be assumed without additional mapping or property records.
The photographs of Pope Chapel were also taken in February 1955. They include images of the school exterior, campus grounds, classrooms, a basement classroom, and a classroom identified as serving third- and fourth-grade students.
Archival descriptions identify Pope Chapel as a school serving grades one through eight. Its existence demonstrates that African American families in the surrounding community maintained an educational institution despite the restrictions imposed by segregation.
The University of Mississippi’s historical exhibit on segregated education explains that the Phay photographs were produced during a period of school surveys and reorganization planning following legislative changes in 1953. These investigations documented school facilities while operating under the expectation that Mississippi would continue maintaining a segregated educational system.
For Pope, the resulting photographs provide an unusually valuable record of educational life. They preserve the appearance of institutions that might otherwise be remembered only through family photographs, school records, and personal recollections.
They also make clear that educational history cannot be reconstructed solely through the buildings associated with the town’s white high school. Pope Chapel and the African American families whose children attended it formed another important part of the area’s educational experience.
The broader process of school integration eventually transformed public education throughout Panola County. Historian Carl Edwin Lindgren’s research documents the political and administrative struggles surrounding the development of the county’s separate school systems and the integration of South Panola schools during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Although these changes affected the educational structure within which Pope operated, further research into school board minutes and local newspapers is needed to establish the precise circumstances under which individual Pope-area schools were consolidated, integrated, or discontinued.
Community Organizations and Local Improvement
Education and religion were not the only institutions that contributed to Pope’s community life. During the twentieth century, residents also organized civic groups intended to provide recreational opportunities and support local improvement.
An especially valuable original record survives in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s charter books. On October 8, 1968, members of the Pope and Adjacent Community Development Club held a meeting to authorize the organization’s incorporation as a nonprofit association.
The resolution identified Bennie Farris Green, Bossie D. Shannon, and Edgar McGee as individuals authorized to apply for the charter. Eva Rudd, serving as secretary, certified the organization’s resolution.
The State of Mississippi approved the club’s incorporation on December 4, 1968, and the original documents were preserved in Charter Book 172.
The organization’s charter described an ambitious set of recreational objectives. These included the possible construction and operation of a lake, tennis courts, swimming pool, baseball fields, playgrounds, clubhouses, and barbecue facilities.
The surviving charter establishes the association’s intended purposes, although it does not demonstrate that every proposed facility was constructed. Nevertheless, the document provides important evidence of local efforts to organize recreational opportunities and strengthen community life.
The Panola Partnership also identifies the Pope Woman’s Club as a civic organization associated with educational, cultural, charitable, and community improvement activities. According to the organization’s description, the club has supported scholarships, charitable causes, and annual community events.
Such institutions demonstrate that Pope’s history was not limited to agricultural businesses or municipal government. Volunteer organizations helped residents maintain social relationships, support young people, and pursue projects intended to benefit the community.
For small towns, the influence of these organizations could be substantial because they provided opportunities for residents to work together outside the formal structures of local government.
Pope in the Modern Era
Like many rural Mississippi communities, Pope experienced significant economic changes during the later twentieth century. Agricultural mechanization, improved highway transportation, changing patterns of commerce, and the growing importance of larger regional centers reduced the dependence of many small towns upon their traditional railroad and agricultural businesses.
The Panola Partnership’s local history describes the progression from logging toward row farming and livestock production, while recognizing the historical importance of cotton ginning to the community.
Pope’s relationship with the surrounding countryside remained important even as residents gained greater access to services and employment opportunities in neighboring towns. Batesville continued serving as a major commercial center for southern Panola County, while Pope retained its identity as a smaller incorporated community.
The nearby Enid Lake area also became an important recreational destination in northern Mississippi. Known for fishing and outdoor recreation, the lake provided opportunities that differed from the agricultural and railroad activities upon which Pope had originally developed.
Population figures provide another way to examine the community’s changing circumstances. Rowland recorded 172 residents in 1900 and estimated approximately 300 by 1906, although the latter figure was an estimate rather than a federal census count.
More than a century later, the 2010 United States census recorded 215 residents in Pope. According to the Mississippi State University Extension Service’s census profile, the population increased to 268 in 2020, representing growth of approximately 24.7 percent over the decade.
These figures demonstrate that Pope remained a small municipality despite the substantial changes that occurred throughout Panola County. Its population did not approach that of Batesville or the county’s larger communities, yet its continued incorporation and local institutions preserved a distinct municipal identity.
Pope’s modern population should also be distinguished from the larger surrounding area associated with its postal address. Federal census counts for the municipality measure residents within the recognized community boundaries rather than everyone living in the wider countryside who may identify Pope as their hometown.
Preserving the History of Pope
The history of Pope illustrates how a small railroad settlement could develop institutions and traditions that remained important across generations. From its establishment during the 1850s to its incorporation during Reconstruction, the community grew through the combined influence of transportation, agriculture, commerce, religion, and education.
Its early merchants and physicians helped provide essential services, while cotton production connected the town to the wider economy of Mississippi. Churches developed into longstanding centers of religious and social life, and schools became important institutions through which families pursued educational opportunities.
At the same time, the experiences of residents were not identical. Silas Knox’s recollections preserve evidence of slavery, emancipation, racial intimidation, and political exclusion, while the photographs of Pope and Pope Chapel schools demonstrate how racial segregation shaped education well into the twentieth century.
These histories belong together. The story of Pope cannot be fully understood through its railroad, merchants, churches, or municipal records alone, because the community was also shaped by agricultural laborers, formerly enslaved families, teachers, students, religious congregations, and residents whose experiences were less frequently preserved in published accounts.
Important questions remain unanswered. The competing explanations of the town’s name deserve further investigation, particularly through nineteenth-century land deeds and railroad records. Additional research into early newspapers could reveal more about Pope’s merchants, cotton gin operations, schools, municipal officials, and changing economy.
The surviving school photographs, church records, and civic organization charters already demonstrate the value of preserving local historical materials. Each document contributes another detail to a community whose history might otherwise be overshadowed by larger towns and more widely documented events.
Pope’s population has remained modest, but its history reflects many of the forces that transformed Mississippi over nearly two centuries. Its story remains visible in the records of a railroad station, the foundations of agricultural commerce, the memories of formerly enslaved residents, the development of local churches, and the educational institutions that served generations of families.
Sources & Further Reading
Rowland, Dunbar, ed. Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form. Vol. 2. Atlanta: Southern Historical Publishing Association, 1907, 454–455. https://ldsgenealogy.com/MS/books/Mississippi-comprising-sketches-of-towns-events-institutions-and-persons-arranged-in-cyclopedic-form-Vol-II-part-53.htm.
Mississippi Secretary of State. Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, 2012–2016. “Municipal Government,” 409. Jackson: Mississippi Secretary of State, 2014. https://www.sos.ms.gov/content/documents/ed_pubs/pubs/BlueBook12-16/10-2014-Municipal-Government.pdf.
Mississippi Legislature. “Senate Resolution No. 7: A Resolution Commending and Congratulating the Members of Pope Baptist Church upon the Occasion of Their 130th Anniversary Celebration.” Third Extraordinary Session, 2002. https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/20023E/pdf/SR/SR0007PS.pdf.
Mississippi Secretary of State. “Pope and Adjacent Community Development Club, Inc.” Charter of Incorporation, December 4, 1968. Charter Book 172, 163–168. Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Digital Archives. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series-files/sos/s1099/pdf/P_Book_172.pdf.
Federal Writers’ Project. “Silas Knox, Panola County.” Interview. Mississippi Slave Narratives. Works Progress Administration, 1930s. Transcribed by the MSGenWeb Slave Narrative Project. https://msgw.org/slaves/knox-xslave.htm.
“History of Panola County, Compiled from Reminiscences of Oldest Citizens.” Southern Reporter (Sardis, MS), May 28, 1909. Hays-Ray-Webb Collection, Mississippi State University Libraries. https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/mss-webb-collection/267/.
Phay, John E. The Report of a Survey of the Public Schools of Panola County, Como Separate School District and Sardis Separate School District. University of Mississippi, December 1955. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/ms_school_surveys/135/.
Phay, John E. “Pope (High School).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/26/.
Phay, John E. “Pope (Main Building).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/158/.
Phay, John E. “Pope (Gymnasium Building and Teacherage).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/28/.
Phay, John E. “Pope (Shop Building).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/27/.
Phay, John E. “Pope (Shop Entrance).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/160/.
Phay, John E. “Pope (Teacherage).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/163/.
Phay, John E. “Pope Chapel (School).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/31/.
Phay, John E. “Pope Chapel (Grade 3 and 4 Classroom).” February 1955. Photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/32/.
Phay, John E. “Pope Chapel (Classroom).” February 1955. Color photograph. John Elon Phay Collection, University of Mississippi Libraries. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/169/.
University of Mississippi Libraries. “Panola County.” John E. Phay Collection. Archives and Special Collections, University of Mississippi. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/phay_pan/index.5.html.
University of Mississippi Libraries. “Segregation Through the Lens: African American Schools in Mississippi before Integration.” Archives and Special Collections, University of Mississippi. https://olemiss.edu/depts/general_library/archives/exhibits/civilrights/segregation/phay.html.
Lindgren, Carl Edwin. A Historical-Comparative Study of the County School Systems of North and South Panola, Mississippi. D.Ed. diss., University of South Africa, 1999. https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/17218.
Panola Partnership. “Crenshaw, Pope, Courtland, Crowder.” Panola Partnership. https://panolacounty.com/panola-overview/crenshaw-courtland-pope/.
Mississippi State University Extension Service. Pope Census Profile (2010–2020). Publication P3716-342. Mississippi State, MS: Mississippi State University Extension Service. https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/pope-census-profile-2010-2020.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Panola County.” Educable Children Records (Mississippi), 1850–1894; 1906–1965. Digital Archives. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/educablechildren/panola.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Panola County, Series 1202.” County Tax Rolls, 1818–1902. Digital Archives. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/osa/s1202/panola.
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. “Enid Reservoir.” Fisheries Bureau. https://www.mdwfp.com/fishing-boating/lakes/enid-reservoir.
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Mississippi.” Appalachian Regional Commission. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-states/mississippi/.