Rev. W.D. Ridgeway emerged in Mississippi during the 1950s as a courageous, steadfast, and respected Civil Rights leader. Because of his work with the NAACP and his close work with NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers, he was constantly watched by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission and the local White Citizens Council of Hattiesburg. He was the only African American from Mississippi to travel to Washington, D.C., to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights on February 28, 1957, about voting rights violations against African Americans in Forrest County. In his testimony, he said that he was not permitted to cast a ballot, that fewer than 25 of the county's 12,958 Negro residents had been allowed to register and vote, and that on October 16, 1956, he and 17 other Negroes were flatly refused registration. His testimony and that of others is credited with helping secure passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, enacted on September 9, 1957, which created the Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Justice Department. Before his return from Washington D.C., his family and home had to be protected, and after he returned, he and his family faced many acts of racism orchestrated by the local White Citizens Council, while some members of True Light Baptist Church, where he served as pastor, were subjected to economic pressure in an attempt to stop his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Despite this opposition, he continued his fight for freedom, serving as one of the keynote speakers with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Southern Christian Ministers' Conference in Jackson, Mississippi, on September 22-24, 1959, where he delivered a speech on the part ministers should play in the crusade for integration. He also played a pivotal role in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project in Hattiesburg and, after receiving a personal invitation from President Lyndon B. Johnson, attended the First White House Conference on Civil Rights held June 1-2, 1966.