09/08/2026
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Today, the Black History Gallery had the pleasure of welcoming Zachary Clary, a doctoral candidate in History at Vanderbilt University and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s 2026 Religion in Mississippi History Research Fellow, to McComb.
We spent part of the day exploring McComb’s Civil Rights history and visiting places that help tell a story whose impact reaches far beyond our city.
Clary’s fellowship supports research contributing to his doctoral dissertation and is made possible through a grant from Lilly Endowment’s Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. He is currently pursuing his doctorate at Vanderbilt University, where he also earned a Master of Arts in History. He holds an additional M.A. in History from the University of South Carolina and a B.A. in History from the College of William & Mary.
His visit is also a reminder of why preserving and sharing McComb’s local history matters.
In the early 1960s, McComb and Southwest Mississippi became critical proving grounds for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s voter registration work in Mississippi. Organizers worked alongside local residents, churches, students, and community leaders, developing experiences and lessons that would help inform the expanding mass voter registration movement across the state.
The history made on these streets became part of a much larger American story.
When researchers, students, educators, and visitors come to McComb, they have an opportunity to see the places, hear the community stories, and better understand the local people behind events often told only from a national perspective.
That is part of the work of the Black History Gallery: preserving the local story while helping people understand its national significance.
We appreciate Zachary spending time with us today and taking a deeper look at the people, places, faith communities, and organizing traditions that made McComb an important chapter in the Civil Rights Movement.
📍 Black History Gallery
819 Wall Street | McComb, Mississippi
Local history. National impact.
https://blackhistorygallery.info
