With the Voting Rights Act in the national news, students in the McComb School District held a groundbreaking student conference on the Mississippi voting rights struggle with veterans who made history during the 1960s. Over the course of two dynamic days (Feb. 21-22, 2013), there were student led history tours, interactive panel presentations, oral history interviews, and a community forum.
Planned by a high school student group called McComb Legacies, the event was inspired by a fall trip to the Delta. The featured presenters included Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, John Due (joined by his daughter Tananarive Due), Shirley Bates, Michael Nobles, Bobby Talbert, Mrs. Patsy Ruth Butler, Jacqueline Byrd Martin, Ann Harris, and Paul Ortiz.