More than 100 high school students walk out to protest injustice: Seven Days of 1961 podcast

On the "Seven Days of 1961" podcast, activists, many of whom were teenagers, share how they risked everything to challenge white supremacy.

On episode five: Brenda Travis was expelled from high school after serving time in jail for her bus station demonstration. Her classmates walked out in support. The students wanted an end to racial violence, segregation and barriers to voting. Their activism helped rally young people across Mississippi to challenge the system.

Brenda Travis tells the story of seeing her fellow students surround her, sharing that she felt then that she "wasn't alone." They marched to City Hall, where they were arrested by police carrying billy clubs.

The “Seven Days of 1961” podcast features stories of resistance, told by the people who lived it. Learn more about the heroic civil rights activists and the danger they faced at 7daysof1961.usatoday.com.

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Hit play on the podcast player above and read along with the transcript below. 

Brenda Travis:

When they ask about the volunteers or who's willing to go to jail to keep the momentum going, there were three of us who raised our hands, myself being the only female.

Nathalie Boyd:

On October 4th, 1961, Brenda Travis was expelled from Burglund High School for her activism in multiple Civil Rights demonstrations. Over 100 Black high school students walked out in protest of Brenda's suspension. This historic walkout and support for Brenda was a catalyst for youth engagement in the fight for integration and voting rights in McComb, Mississippi.

Nathalie Boyd:

I'm Nathalie Boyd, a podcast producer with USA TODAY. Brenda Travis spoke with us about the emotional experience of seeing her schoolmates walk out and the sacrifices she endured for the Civil Rights Movement. This is the Seven Days of 1961 podcast. Hear history from the people who made it.

Brenda Travis:

In 1955, those of us who were born in that era have Emmett Till stories. But I was only 10 years old when Emmett Till was killed.

Nathalie Boyd:

Brenda decided from a very young age that she had to do something to fight for her freedom and the freedom of the people she loved.

Brenda Travis:

And I noticed there was a quiet hush-hush whispering. Our parents didn't want us to know about this horrific tale of the death of Emmett Till. It was too close to home. So someone had a Jet Magazine and I saw the bloated, beaten, battered body of Emmett Till in the casket. And it was at that point my life changed for eternity. And a few days after seeing Emmett Till's body, the police came to our home, bust through the door, yanked my brother up. And this is an emotional story for me. And the only thing I could think of when they yanked my brother up was that he was going to end up in the same condition as Emmett Till. I would never ever see him alive again. And it was at that point, as I said, my whole life changed.

Nathalie Boyd:

Brenda's brother returned home later that night, but he never spoke about what happened to him that day. At the age of 16, Brenda became the youth president of her local NAACP.

Brenda Travis:

After setting up the office, a group of us young people started going there to be trained how to teach people to register to vote. Because in Mississippi, they had requirements that you had to pay your poll tax, and had to take written tests, which meant that you were supposed to be literate. And the tests that they gave, many of them just didn't make sense. A Philadelphia lawyer couldn't have even passed to tell you how many grains of rice is it a package. Just absolutely ridiculous. Voter registration was going slowly and there was too much energy with the youth. So Hollis Watkins Muhammad and Curtis Hayes Muhammad, in order to capture this energy, they decided to do direct action. So these two guys went to FW Woolworth and sat down at the counters, and were immediately arrested

Nathalie Boyd:

Soon after Hollis and Curtis' arrest, the community held a local meeting to discuss what steps should be taken to further the movement. It was decided that they would attempt to desegregate their local bus station and to prepare for the worst.

Brenda Travis:

When they ask about the volunteers or who's willing to go to jail to keep the momentum going. And so there were three of us who raised our hand, Ike Lewis, Robert Bobby Talbert, and myself, being the only female. So we went the next day to the Greyhound bus station. We walked in to sneers and jeers, and so before we could get our tickets or ask for our tickets, the police were there to arrest us.

Brenda Travis:

So the three of us were arrested. We joined Hollis and Curtis. We went into the jail. Hey, Curtis, Hollis, letting them know your comrades are here. And so we all just cheered and we were happy. We were just a jovial group. We would sleep during the daylight hours and at night we'd wake up and sing all night. And the Pike County Jail was in a neighborhood, had community people were all around and we would sing, "Oh, freedom, ain't ascared of your jail, because I want my freedom. I want my freedom." And, "Tis that freedom trains are coming, coming, coming. Tis that freedom trains coming, coming, coming." But we rocked the neighbor. We rocked the neighborhood.

Nathalie Boyd:

Brenda and her four fellow protestors spent an entire month in jail.

Brenda Travis:

So upon my release, I went to enroll in school and was told by the principal, CD Higgins, that I was expelled. And I asked him why. And he said, "Because of your Civil Rights activity." And mind you, I don't know what my Civil Rights activity had to do with me going to school because school was out. This wasn't an activity that occurred during the school year, even. But he also alluded to the fact that the school superintendent, who was a white superintendent, tell you who should be in school, who should be expelled and stuff. We weren't rowdy, vicious, violent people. We were peaceful.

Nathalie Boyd:

Brenda left the principal's office frustrated. She told a friend about her expulsion and they headed to the auditorium for school assembly. Word of Brenda's expulsion spread through the student body and a classmate questioned the principal about Brenda during the assembly. The principal responded they should speak in his office and ended the assembly.

Brenda Travis:

So after the assembly was over, I left out of the auditorium to leave the campus. And then the students walked out with me from the gym. I was walking and just looking out of my peripheral, and here are these people. It was like a wall engulfing me. It was emotional. It was emotional because at that point I knew I wasn't alone. I knew I wasn't alone.

Nathalie Boyd:

The students sang We Shall Overcome, and marched and sang to McComb City Hall. Their peaceful protest was met by an angry mob, welding pipes, bricks, bats, chains, and wrenches. The students stopped across the street from the city hall building. Brenda knelt at the top of the stairs and began to pray. Before she could finish her prayer, she was snatched up by police officers and taken to another jail cell.

Nathalie Boyd:

The story of the walkout spread. And it inspired some activists who wanted to push back against the way things were. It helped to rally some young people in Mississippi to protest racism and segregation at lunch counters, bus stations, and voting booths. Many of the students who participated in the walkout went on to become leaders of major organizations in the Civil Rights Movement throughout the south.

Brenda Travis:

I was 16 at the time I was rearrested. I went back to Magnolia, the Pike County Jail. And from there, they took me to Oakley Training School. They didn't tell my mother where I was. She still thought that I was in the Pike County Jail. When she went there, I wasn't there and they didn't have any answers for her. So she thought that I was lynched. So I spent six and a half months in the reformatory school.

Nathalie Boyd:

Upon her release, Brenda was exiled from the state of Mississippi and put in the care of a professor in Alabama, who she later said abused her.

Brenda Travis:

I felt as though I always had to be looking over my shoulder because they were coming after me. To be honest with you, til today even, I have trust issues.

Brenda Travis:

I've gone around to schools. I've spoken with young people. I've played videos of the movement showing excerpts of marches where they're using water hose, and how the water hose is so powerful. They was lifting bodies up and washing them down the street we would take our water hose out there and blow a piece of paper down the street. How dogs were sicked on demonstrators, peaceful demonstrators.

Brenda Travis:

And my advice would be to the young people today, continue in the vein that we started. Don't wait for something to happen to be active. Be proactive. And many times when you're proactive bad things may happen, but not as bad as would be if you said and do nothing. Evil grows when good men do nothing. So don't be the good man and do nothing.

Nathalie Boyd:

In 2013, Brenda founded the Brenda Travis Historical Education Foundation. Through this foundation, Brenda teaches young people about the Civil Rights Movement and encourages them to be active in social justice.

Brenda Travis:

It's very painful. It is very painful. We made a few strides, but we've lost a few too. Those strides had bloodshed. They had heartache. They had tears. They had sacrifices. To think in terms of that and to see things almost revert back to, in some instances, worse than what it was. All of these different hate groups, they just so blatantly open with their hatred. Why would you hate me because I came out maybe a shade darker than you? And my hair may be a little bit more curly or not straight like, why would you hate me because of that? And it reminds me of what my mother, and I call mama Ella Baker, my mother. "We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. Until the killing of black men, black mother's son, as important as a killing of white men, white mother's son. We who believe in freedom cannot rest." And that's my message.

Nathalie Boyd:

The Seven Days of 1961 podcast is produced and edited by me, Nathalie Boyd. Deborah Barfield Berry reported this episode and Robert Hanashiro produced the interview. You can see images of Brenda and read Deborah's full story about the walkout at sevendaysof1961.usatoday.com. We've dropped a link to the story in this episode description.

Nathalie Boyd:

Thank you for listening. Let other people know about the show. These firsthand stories of protest and change deserve more recognition. Please write us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps more people find the podcast and you can tweet us @usatoday.