Pearl, Mississippi

Its clock tower is inscribed with the names of graduates of Pearl High School for the period 1949 through 1989 while the high school occupied the building.

On September 16, 1968, a community meeting was held to discuss the incorporation of Pearl, with all but six of the 657 attending residents favoring incorporation.

In 1970, Pearl had 9,613 white residents and 10 black residents.

With the Mississippi Supreme Court ruling of June 5, 1973, the incorporation could proceed.

The Pearl Municipal Separate School District was created on May 18, 1976, by an Ordinance of the City of Pearl Mayor and Board of Aldermen.

The Pearl Chamber of Commerce was formed on August 24, 1978.

The Rankin County campus of Hinds Community College opened in Pearl on July 1, 1983.

On October 1, 1997, Luke Woodham went on a shooting spree that ended at Pearl High School, killing two and injuring seven, after earlier stabbing his mother to death.

=== 2000 census === As of the census of 2000, there were 21,961 people, 8,608 households, and 6,025 families residing in the city.

A 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2) library opened near City Hall on July 18, 2005.

In 2007 the Mississippi Highway Patrol opened a driver's license facility across the highway from the prison.

According to its 2008 Annual Drinking Water Quality Report, Pearl's drinking water comes from the Sparta Sand Aquifer via nine wells that draw the water from it.

By the 1990s Pearl had become more racially integrated, and by 2010 blacks made up 23% of the population.

PPCA graduated its first senior class in May 2012.

== Demographics == === 2020 census === As of the 2020 United States census, there were 27,115 people, 10,463 households, and 6,662 families residing in the city.

Founded in 2024, they replaced the Mississippi Braves, the Double-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Atlanta Braves who relocated from Pearl to Columbus, Georgia, after th...