Brenda Travis grew up in McComb, Mississippi. Her parents were L.S. Travis and Icie Martin Travis. She is the fourth of seven children. Her dad was a sharecropper in Mississippi, up in the delta near Itta Bena or Belzoni. A 15-year-old high school student in McComb Mississippi and one of the first young people to take a stand in support of SNCC's first voter-registration project. Along with two other students, in August of 1961 she participated in an anti-segregation protest at the McComb Greyhound Bus station. They were arrested and served a month in jail. Because of this was expelled from school. She then led more than 100 of her fellow students in a protest march to City Hall where they were beaten by police and white racists before being
