McComb Masonic Temple

McComb Masonic Temple. . , Side A , Located above Burgland Supermarket, the Masonic Temple became a center of civil rights activities in McComb. In 1961, SNCC leader Bob Moses and other activists led voter education classes here, encouraging Black citizens in Pike County to become registered voters. These efforts inspired others in southwest Mississippi to push for voting rights, which led to a violent White backlash. This building was bombed on August 14, 1964, as part of a broader campaign of terror against the McComb movement., Side B , McComb Masonic Temple Black Masonic Lodges provided safe spaces for community organizing, fostering leadership and solidarity among African Americans. The Eureka Lodge #5 moved into this hall around 1955. Situated in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Burglundtown, the hall's lower level housed a grocery store that had been opened by a Black- owned company that allowed community members to buy stock in the enterprise. Peter Lewis was a stockholder in the company, and when the market went into debt, he agreed to take over the Burgland Supermarket. Due to the store's central location, the majority of McComb's Black community would regularly walk by or visit the store for their shopping., With the support of the NAACP's local leaders like C.C. Bryant, SNCC activist Bob Moses came to McComb in 1961 to organize local people to try to register to vote. At the instruction of C.C. and his wife, Emogene Bryant, the lodge allowed Moses to use the Masonic Hall for voter registra- tion workshops. Working with Webb Owens and the Bryants, Moses also organized community meetings each Sunday to advance the voter registration project. On August 7, 1961, the first voter education session was hosted in the Masonic Temple by activist Reggie Robinson. He helped open the voter registration school above the Burgland Supermarket, where he and other SNCC workers prepared locals to take the voter registration exam. Robinson, a high school dropout, helped students understand the Mississippi Constitution since the test required registrants to interpret any clause of the state constitution to the satisfaction of the registrar. Initially, ten individuals joined the classes, yet only four attendees stepped forward to take the exam, with the White official approving just two applications. The classes soon begin to more than double in size., Following a student protest march to City Hall, the principal of Burglund High School demanded that students promise to avoid future protests or face expulsion. On October 16, 1961, over a hundred students refused and returned their textbooks. In response, SNCC members started Nonviolent High School, offering classes for the expelled students. The Masonic Temple served as the temporary facility for this Freedom School until the students began enrolling at Campbell Junior College in Jackson., On August 15, 1964, at 12:50 a.m., a bomb exploded at the Burgland Supermarket. When owner Peter Lewis reached the devastated site a few minutes later, every window had been broken, and the roof and walls were damaged. A huge crater resulted from the explosion, presumably caused by an explosive device hurled from a moving vehicle. Sheriff R. R. Warren, the McComb City Police, the State Highway Patrol, and the FBI investigated the explosion, but no arrests were ever made. The bombing of the supermarket was a part of a string of bombings carried out by McComb's revitalized Ku Klux Klan chapter. During 1964, they bombed more than ten different sites related to McComb's civil rights movement.