Jonas E. and Bertha L. Johnson founded the Prentiss Normal and Industrial Institute in 1907. Patterned after the Tuskegee Institute, where Mrs. Johnson studied under Booker T. Washington, it was the only high school for African Americans in this area for nearly half a century. J.E. Johnson, a graduate of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, was the school's first president. Following desegregation, the Prentiss Institute operated as a junior college until 1989.