[citation needed] The rail center in McComb was one of flashpoints in the violent Illinois Central shopmen's strike of 1911.

Riots took place here that resulted in many injuries, at least three black strikebreakers killed, and authorities bringing in state militia to suppress the emergency soon after the strike started on September 30.

[5] During the 1960s, McComb and nearby areas were the sites of extreme violence by KKK and other white supremacist opponents to the Civil Rights Movement.

White officials and local KKK members countered it with violence and intimidation to suppress black voters.

In 1961, Brenda Travis, Robert Talbert, and Ike Lewis were arrested for staging a sit in at a Greyhound station.

SNCC members of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) returned to McComb in mid-July 1964 to work on voter registration.

From late August 1964 through September, after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, McComb was the site of eleven bombings directed against African Americans.

[10] Malcolm Boyd took part of COFO's Freedom House as a member of a clerical delegation to assist African-American voter registration.

[11]: 10 On October 20, 1977, a chartered plane carrying members and crew of rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in a swamp near McComb, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Steve's sister Cassie (a backup singer), road manager Dean Kilpatrick, as well as both pilots.

McComb was also home to St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, which provided classes from kindergarten through seventh grade until the school closed in 2014.

For higher education, Southwest Mississippi Community College is located just 7 miles (11 km) north of McComb, near Summit.