Burglund Student Protests

Burglund Student Protests. . , On August 30, 1961, Burglund High School students Brenda Travis, Robert Talbert, and Ike Lewis held a sit-in at McComb's segregated Greyhound bus station. After their arrests, Travis and Lewis were later expelled from school. On September 25, local Black civil rights activist Herbert Lee was shot dead by legislator E.H. Hurst in nearby Liberty. On October 4, 115 Burglund students walked out of school to protest Lee's murder and their classmates' expulsions., Burglund High School Walkout The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee began to organize in McComb when local NAACP leader C.C. Bryant invited Bob Moses to come to town in the summer of 1961. Moses recruited other SNCC activists who began to hold workshops on nonviolent protest with local high school students. By the end of the summer, SNCC mass meetings would attract over 200 attendees, including many young people., On August 30, 1961, Brenda Travis, a 15-year-old student from Burglund High School, along with Robert Talbert and Ike Lewis, sat in at the McComb Greyhound station to protest segregation. They were arrested and then held in jail until October 3. Upon their release, Ike Lewis and Brenda Travis learned that Burglund High School had expelled them. Also during their incarceration, civil rights activist Herbert Lee was murdered by state legislator E.H. Hurst in Liberty. , In response to the murder and expulsions, 115 Burglund students walked out of school on October 4th in protest. The students marched to McComb's city hall, prayed on its steps, and refused to leave when ordered by the police. They were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace. Those over the age of eighteen, including SNCC organizers Bob Moses and Chuck McDew, were also charged with contributing to the delinquency of minors. A White mob that had gathered during the protest brutally beat Bob Zellner, a SNCC field secretary and the only White protestor, while police watched. A judge sentenced Brenda Travis to the Oakley juvenile detention facility with an indefinite release date. She remained there until May 1962, when she was released on condition that she leave the state., After the protest, the students refused to attend school unless Travis was also reinstated. The Burglund principal, Mr. Commodore Higgins, agreed to readmit them if they pledged to disengage from the movement. They refused, and on October 16, over one hundred students turned in their books and withdrew from school., SNCC established Nonviolent High, an ad hoc school for the expelled students. They attended it briefly until their SNCC instructors were convicted and jailed for their role in the protests. Many of these students then enrolled in Campbell Junior College in Jackson. Community responses to these protests varied. Some parents joined the freedom movement inspired by their children, while others, scared of repercussions, disciplined their children. Many members of the local NAACP were upset that SNCC had exposed young people to violence and arrest., In October 2011, on the fiftieth anniversary of the student walkout, the McComb school district awarded honorary diplomas to Travis and other students suspended because of the protests.