Jan. 15, 1917  A Mississippi Freedom Trail marker honors civil rights veteran C.C. Bryant. Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Civil rights pioneer C.C. Bryant was born in southwest Mississippi and cut hair on weekends in McComb.  In 1954, he became president of the local NAACP, working closely with Medgar Evers and seeking to add Black Mississippians to the voting rolls. Many feared his activism.  “Many a time I walked down the streets of McComb and the Black leadership — ministers, whatever — would move to the other side,” he said. “They were afraid to do anything.”  Seven years later, he welcomed Bob Moses to stay with him when Moses began the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s voter registration work in Mississippi.  When school children were arrested for their protests, he became furious, and so did the community, rallying around the civil rights movement.  During the summer of 1964, the Ku Klux Klan carried out violence in southwest Mississippi almost every night. Bryant’s barbershop, house and church were all bombed. When nightriders threw dynamite onto his brother’s porch, Bryant fired his gun back at the terrorists. He continued fighting for the movement until his death in 2007.  He was depicted in the HBO movie based on the McComb activism, “Freedom Song.” In 2014, he was honored with a marker on the Mississippi Freedom Trail. The post On this day in 1917 appeared first on Mississippi Today.