Winifred A. Green was born in 1937 and died on February 6, 2016, New Orleans, Louisiana.

She was an American Civil Rights activist from Mississippi.

She was a white advocate for integrated education opened in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, a time when few white Southerners were leaders in the Civil Rights Movement and spent her life leading grassroots civil rights movements impacting youth and education.

Following his successful lawsuit, launched by Medgar and Myrlie Evers, schools in several Mississippi districts, including Green’s home of Jackson, were required to write desegregation plans for the 1964-1965 school year.

However, a Mississippi Citizens’ Council attempted to stop the integration by advocating for school closure rather than allowing black students to attend segregated white schools.

In conjunction, Green joined with other Southern whites from the Jackson area and formed Mississippians for Public Education to argue the value for all children of keeping Mississippi schools open.

He worked as a volunteer with his good friend Marian Wright Edelman with Freedom Summer a campaign begun in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi.

Winifred was one of the founder of the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative in 2002 and served on its executive committee, an organization formed to help rural poor women of the American South.

Winifred Green also served on the board of directors of the Children’s Defense Fund, an organization founded by Marian Wright Edelman.

Winifred Green worked with the American Friends Service Committee.

Green was a graduate of Millsaps College where she met Patt Derian and began her lifelong career as a Civil Rights activist.

Winifred Green passed away at 78 yrs old.