 Finally, in December 1960, the Justice Department invoked its powers authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to file a suit against seventy parties accused of violating the civil rights of black Fayette County citizens.In the following year the first voter registration project in McComb and the surrounding counties in the Southwest corner of the state.Their efforts were met with violent repression from state and local lawmen, the White Citizens' Council, and the Ku Klux Klan.