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News and Events
On Tuesday, October 24, 2011, six Digital Media students from the Business and Technology Complex, their teacher Ms. Falana McDaniel, and Mrs. Lisa Brown Deer, Community Outreach and Youth Organizing Director delivered a donation of over a dozen books on the local Civil Rights movement and labor history to the McComb Public Library. Titles include
Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi by John Dittmer, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement by Bob Zellner, Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC by Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, and Dorothy M. Zellner, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom by Charles Payne, On the Road to Freedom: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail by Charles Cobb and lastly, Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC’s Dream of a New America by Wesley Hogan.
A book display was placed in the entrance of the library to encourage visitors to log on to McCombLegacies.org, a website that the Digital Media students created to increase awareness and understanding about the decades-long civil rights and labor history efforts that local residents embarked on in McComb. The books will soon go into the library’s regular circulation.
This book donation was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support the Community of Promise: Building Strong Schools and Neighborhoods Through History, Activism, and Collaboration, a joint initiative between the McComb School District, the local McComb community, and Teaching for Change.
“The Bible states how we are not supposed to be boastful… so many stories don’t get told.” Mary Isaac, a retired educator from the McComb School District, made this statement after reflecting on a cathartic conversation that she recorded with friend, fellow educator and retiree Helen Washington for StoryCorps, a national non-profit organization. “I have known Mrs. Washington for years [but today] I learned about something that happened in the classroom that I never knew!” Mrs. Isaac and Mrs. Washington are among two of the 20 McComb educators, administrators, support staff and students who recorded stories on October 20th and 21st, 2011, for the National Teachers Initiative. Some participants reflected on why they made the decision to enter the teaching profession, sharing the victories and challenges that they overcame to make a difference in students’ lives. Other participants talked about the impact that attending school in McComb had on their life choices and their outcomes as adults. The National Teachers Initiative selected McComb in honor of the community and school districts activities to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Burglund High School Walkout.Read More
Commemorating our past, celebrating the present and inspiring the future: Intergenerational exchanges ignited by 50th anniversary of Burglund High School Walkout.”
“We have to make a recommitment to move and make a difference. The young men [and women] in our society can make a difference. This event has sparked something in us.” Joe Lewis, a participant in the 1961 Burglund High School Walkout felt reenergized as a civil rights activist 50 years after he first walked out of school with one hundred other classmates. Back then, Mr. Lewis and his classmates protested the expulsion of their friend Brenda Travis, a 15 year old student who joined the sit-ins at Woolworth’s and the Greyhound Bus terminal to fight for desegregation in McComb, Mississippi. Read More
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| Civil Rights Elders listen intently during the opening presentation, given by current teen members of the McComb Young People’s Project. | YPP youth organizer, Sabrena Mays stands alongside Mrs. Hilda Casin, who runs the Black History Gallery, as she challenges youth in attendance to stay civically active. |
Former Burglund Student Mrs. Earnestine Ridley Weatherspoon and Ms. Brenda Travis recall their time at the McComb Jail where Travis was held after participating in a sit-in at the bus station in 1961. |
Understanding Race Exhibit: Are We So Different & Hurricane Katrina Exhibit: New Orleans Field Trip
Forty Denman U.S. History and Local Culture students and forty high school students attended the exhibit “Understanding Race Exhibit: Are we so different?” sponsored by the American Anthropological Association (AAA), on Tuesday, September 20th, in New Orleans. Larry Johns recommended the trip after going to the exhibit on his own over the summer.
Students participated in hands-on activities at the Race exhibit. Field trip evaluations were overwhelmingly positive. When eighth graders were asked how they feel about their background, one student wrote, “I am human. I am not white, black, or Indian. I’m Tyler.” A display about Sickle Cell Anemia was of special interest since one of the 8th graders has this disease. Students were very interested in learning that all humans share the same basic biological makeup.
In line with the teachings at this exhibit, a lesson is currently being developed about Native American resistance to popular imagery for Learning Strategies. This lesson will challenge the popular imagery of Native American stereotypes and the use of such imagery for sport mascots.
Civil Rights Tour 2011 As an opportunity to learn firsthand about the Civil Rights Movement of Mississippi, 44 middle and high school students (and 11 chaperones) from McComb took a three-day educational tour at the end of the 2010–11 school year. The tour was originally planned for mid-May, but when the planning committee heard an announcement that the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Riders' Reunion would be held in Jackson, Miss., the following week, we immediately changed our plans so that we could attend the reunion as well. Read more |
McComb Students Create Mini-Documentary
Sixteen McComb students rolled up their sleeves this summer as researchers, historians, and filmmakers to shed light onto our local history. In particular, the students decided to focus on the situations and conditions that caused the walkout at Burglund High School in the 1960s. At the workshop July 18 – 20, the students compiled a video using oral history interviews performed in the Local Cultures class, documents from the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and newspaper articles from the period. Read More |
Free Minds Free People Youth Organizing
