Mission
The McCombLegacies.org website is designed to share the history of McComb, Miss., with an emphasis on the stories of working people of all races, women, and young people and how they have strived for equity in labor, civics, education, economics, and the arts. The site is designed by students with an emphasis on oral histories conducted by students in an effort to understand, preserve, and share their local history.

Coordination
McCombLegacies.org is a collaborative effort of the McComb School District and community members of the Local History Advisory Committee who are committed to the research, documentation, and sharing of McComb’s history. A team of McComb School District and community members meet to review and approve the content for the site.

Production
The web design is by students in McComb’s Business and Technology (B&T) School’s Digital Media class under the direction of the instructor. This class is working in a state-of-the-art Mac lab (one of the few in the state). Students in the Local Culture class at McComb High School have gathered most of the oral history interviews. Some have been done in collaboration with the Urban School of San Francisco. They can also be found as a part of the oral history project www.tellingstories.org/mccomb. Additional oral histories collected by the William Winter Institute, USM, CRM Vets, and other institutions are available on the site.

Students in McComb have collected much of the content for this site, thereby not only learning history but also about the role of historians and researchers. Community members have generously shared stories, analysis, primary documents, photos, and leads to more stories.

Digital Media students that worked on this website.

Support
This website is supported in part by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation called “A Community of Promise: Building Strong Schools and Neighborhoods Through History, Activism, and Collaboration.” An earlier version of the website was developed by the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.

Partnering Organizations:

McComb School District
The McComb School District is engaging its teachers and students in a rigorous study of U.S. history with the support of a USDE Teaching American History grant and as an active partner on the Kellogg Foundation grant on the teaching of the Civil Rights Movement and labor history. The McComb School District provides students the opportunity to critically analyze texts, read primary documents, collect oral histories, and through this process develop the skills and disposition to be active in civic life today.

William Winter Institute
The mission of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation is to “foster reconciliation and civic renewal wherever people suffer as a result of racial discrimination or alienation, and promote scholarly research, study, and teaching on race and the impact of race and racism.” The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation launched the first version of McCombLegacies.org in 2004 and coordinates the Welcome Table to promote dialogues on race along with the Fetzer Institute and the Kellogg Foundation, and collaborates closely with the Mississippi Truth Project. McComb is one of the sites for the Welcome Table.

University of Southern Mississippi
Through the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, the University of Southern Mississippi has been collecting and preserving the stories of Mississippians since 1971. Especially strong in the history of the Civil Rights Movement and veterans' histories, the oral history collection now contains nearly 4000 interviews.

Telling Their Stories Oral History Archives Project
Telling Their Stories, based at the Urban School of San Francisco, has partnered with the McComb School District by providing professional support on engaging students in oral history collection. Students from the McComb High School and the Urban School have also collaborated on interviews in San Francisco and Mississippi.
Teaching for Change
Teaching for Change is a nonprofit organization that "provides teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write, and change the world." Teaching for Change is working with the McComb School District and community on professional development, curriculum development, youth development, and parent engagement with the support of a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

The Young People's Project
The mission of the Young People's Project to "develop students aged 8-22 from traditionally marginalized populations as learners, teachers, leaders, and organizers through math and media literacy, community-building, and advocacy in order to build a unique network of young people who are better equipped to navigate life’s circumstances, are active in their communities, and
advocate for education reform in America." In December of 2010, the project was launched in McComb with YPP staff from Jackson, Miss., making weekly visits to work with a team of junior and senior high school students after school on math tutoring. The students formed a YPP committee in McComb and have taken on planning the 50th anniversary commemoration activities and work on literacy in the 2011–12 school year. The national and Jackson YPP staff continue to provide advice and support.