W. Arthur Winstead

Who was W. Arthur Winstead?

William Arthur Winstead was a U.S. Representative from Mississippi's 4th congressional district.

Born near Philadelphia, Mississippi, Winstead attended the public schools, Clarke Memorial College in Newton, Mississippi; and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. He graduated in 1931 from the University of Southern Mississippi, then known as Mississippi Southern College, at Hattiesburg. Winstead was an agriculturalist, and from 1935 to 1942, he was the superintendent of education in his native Neshoba County.

Winstead was elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-eighth and to the ten succeeding Congresses. Like nearly all of the state's Democrats, he was an ardent segregationist, and signed the Southern Manifesto.

Winstead was unopposed in his first bid for Congress, and only faced an opponent once during his 10 successful campaigns. In those days, the Republican Party was more or less nonexistent in Mississippi, and Democratic nomination was tantamount to election. However, in 1964, he was defeated by Republican challenger Prentiss Walker by a shocking 11-point margin. Winstead was swept out in large part due to the district and state swinging dramatically to support Barry Goldwater's presidential bid. Goldwater carried many of the state's counties by well over 90 percent of the vote.