McComb

McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States, about 80 miles south of Jackson, just off of I-55. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 13,337, an increase of about a thousand people since the 1980 census of 12,331. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area. McComb was founded in 1872 after Colonel Henry Simpson McComb, president of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad, a predecessor of the Illinois Central Railroad (now part of the Canadian National Railway), decided to move the railroad's maintenance shops away from New Orleans, Louisiana, outside of the attractions of that city's saloons. The railroad purchased land in Pike County, and three nearby communities, Elizabeth town, Burglund, and Harveytown, agreed to consolidate. During the 1960s, McComb played a critical role in the Civil Rights Movement. It was the location of SNCC's first voter registration project which was met with violence... full article at wikipedia