Draft:E. W. Steptoe

Elridge Willie "E.W." Steptoe was a farmer, civil rights activist, and founding leader of the Amite County, Mississippi branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Steptoe originally hosted NAACP meetings out of his barn, and spent most of his life organizing black voters in the rural south in collaboration with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)- despite his personal feelings on the role of guns in self-defense. In 1964, Steptoe represented Amite County in the MFDP Atlantic City delegation, and in 1967, he ran for congress.