Editing Winona, Mississippi (section)

===20th century to present===
Following their service in World War II, many African Americans began to press to regain their constitutional rights. Activism increased in the South into the 1950s and 1960s.

Many whites in Winona and elsewhere in Mississippi opposed such changes. In 1963, [[Fannie Lou Hamer]] and other state activists stopped to eat in Winona on their way to a literacy workshop in [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. On June 9, 1963, Hamer and the other activists stopped again in Winona on their return. The group was arrested on a false charge and jailed by white policemen. Once in jail, Hamer and her colleagues were, per orders of local law officers, beaten savagely by inmates of the Montgomery County jail, almost to the point of death.<ref>Chana Kai Lee. ''[[For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer]]''. Urbana and Chicago: [[University of Illinois Press]], 2000. pp. 45-60</ref>

While touring the country in this period, the Rev. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], head of the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC), made a stop in Winona. He was ambushed by local barber Ryan Lynch, an outspoken white supremacist. King was saved by his assigned bodyguard, a local police officer named Garrit Howard.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hotelsaccommodation.com.au/Winona-United_States/|title=Winona Accommodation - Winona Hotels, Apartments, Motels, Holiday Parks|website=Hotelsaccomodation.com.au|access-date=7 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161121210133/http://www.hotelsaccommodation.com.au/Winona-United_States/|archive-date=21 November 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1996, the owner of the Tardy Furniture store in Winona, Bertha Tardy, and three employees of the store were found fatally shot.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/05/01/tardy-furniture-murders-what-happened|title=The Tardy Furniture store murders: What happened that morning in July '96?|first=Parker|last=Yesko|website=Apmreports.org|access-date=22 May 2021|archive-date=5 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305152343/https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/05/01/tardy-furniture-murders-what-happened|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Curtis Flowers]] was arrested in January 1997 and charged with four counts of [[capital murder]]. Flowers was tried a total of six times,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zhu |first=Alissa |date=18 March 2019 |title=Curtis Flowers: How a Mississippi man was tried six times for the same murders |url=https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2019/03/18/curtis-flowers-what-you-need-know-six-murder-trials-us-supreme-court/3128798002/ |access-date=2023-03-19 |website=The Clarion-Ledger |language=en-US}}</ref> and in 2020 the Office of the Attorney General filed a motion to dismiss the charges.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Reports|first=A. P. M.|title=APM Reports Documents|url=https://features.apmreports.org/documents/|access-date=2021-09-18|website=features.apmreports.org|language=en|archive-date=2021-01-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131185003/https://features.apmreports.org/documents/|url-status=live}}</ref>