Appalachian History Series – Tupelo’s Dark Sunday: The 1936 Tornado and the Making of Modern Appalachian Mississippi On a warm Palm Sunday evening in April 1936, the people of Tupelo, Mississippi settled into the usual routines of a small hill country town. Families finished supper, children were put to bed, and the lights of north Tupelo glowed around a shallow body of water locals called Gum Pond. Within a few minutes that quiet vanished.


