Brenda Travis (born 1945) is an African American veteran of the Civil Rights Movement from McComb, Mississippi, whose imprisonments for protesting a segregated bus station and participation in a peaceful high school walk out in 1961 helped catalyze public sentiment against segregation.

[3] Travis believes the story of her birth is important as it demonstrates her activism in the Civil Rights Movement was always predetermined, even from the womb.

"[4] Travis was compelled to civil rights activism by the injustice she watched unfold around her at a young age.

In an interview in 2007, Travis said following her brother's arrest and seeing the images of Till's body, "I became enraged and knew that one day I had to take a stand.

On the same day she joined she ran into Bob Moses, who recruited her for help organizing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC's) first voter registration project.

That summer she also joined SNCC training for nonviolent protests and became the youth president of the Pike County NAACP.

Travis volunteered to participate in a sit in the next day and go to jail along with Robert Talbert and Ike Lewis, who were also students.

[3][8] On August 30, 1961, Travis, Talbert, and Lewis purchased tickets to New Orleans at the segregated Greyhound Bus station in McComb and sat at the lunch counter.

[6][3][9][10] After her release from jail, Travis discovered she was expelled from Burglund High School due to her activism.

[5][11][12] April 21, 1962, six and a half months after she was sent to Oakley, a professor from Talladega College met with Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett.