One of the oldest settlements in Covington County, one of Hopewell's earliest settlers was Thomas Ates, who bought land from the Choctaw Natives.

Ben and Mary Duckworth were also early settlers, and named the town after the Biblical account of Moses' and Abraham's definition of hope: "to trust, expect, await, and endure".

[3] In 1922, Covington County authorities created the Hopewell Colored Separate School District in response to petitions by black citizens for improved educational opportunities.

The citizens lost their lawsuit; the judge ruling that it was happenstance that all blacks but no whites lived in both school districts.

The lawsuit languished until 2006, when the school board and the U.S. Department of Justice agreed on a plan which angered both blacks and whites because of the increased distances students would need to travel.