Editing Ruleville, Mississippi (section)

==History==
Ruleville was described as "surrounded by a fine fertile country and timber lands".<ref name="Rowland"/>{{rp|580}}  Development of the settlement followed construction of the [[Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad]], which established a stop here.<ref name="Rowland"/> The village was laid out in 1898 by J. W. Rule, for whom it was named.<ref name="Rowland">{{cite book | last = Rowland | first = Dunbar | title = Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form | publisher = Southern Historical Publishing Association | year = 1907 | url = https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/548960-redirection | volume = 2 | page = 580}}</ref> In September 1899 the official petition to Governor [[Anselm J. McLaurin]] to incorporate contained 98 names of the 'citizens and electors of Sunflower County...[who] reside in the village' noting that 150 people currently lived inside the village.<ref>Robertson, John A. (1993). Early history of the town of Ruleville, Mississippi : in the heart of the Mississippi delta. Parchman, MS : Magnolia State Enterprises. originally published: Greenville, Miss. : Democrat Print Co., c1965. p.9</ref>

The rural area was being developed for cotton plantations after the American Civil War. Ruleville was established as an important cotton shipping point on the railroad. By the early 1900s, Ruleville had telephone and telegraph facilities, about 20 businesses, two white churches and one black church, a water works system, an electric light plant, three public gins, and excellent public schools for the white population.  The population in 1900 was 336.<ref name="Rowland"/> The Bank of Ruleville was established in 1903.<ref name="Rowland"/>

During the [[Civil Rights Movement]] that expanded beginning in the 1950s, [[Fannie Lou Hamer]], a farm worker, started a movement for poor people.<ref name="Moye28"/>