C-N Celebrates MLK Legacy

Civil Rights Pioneer Brenda Travis in Chapel Tuesday A.M.

In August 1961, 16-year-old Brenda Travis went to her hometown’s Greyhound bus station and sat down. The courage it took for an African-American girl to sit in the “whites only” section of a public building 50 years ago will be championed when Travis speaks in C-N’s MLK observance chapel Tuesday morning.

For her action at the bus station, she spent 28 days in jail. In October of that year, she was one of 120 high school students to march to the steps of City Hall.

The white establishment of McComb, Mississippi was tired of Brenda Travis.

“For their trouble they were harassed, arrested, and jailed,” recalled C-N President Randall O’Brien, who was a 12-year-old McComb native that paid attention to what befell those who acted. “Ultimately, the teenage Miss Travis was sent away to reform school.”

She was released after some six months, on the condition that she leave Mississippi within 24 hours.

O’Brien will introduce his childhood hero to the C-N community during the 9:30 a.m. service at Jefferson City’s First Baptist Church. The public is invited to the free event.