University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa William Arthur Winstead (January 6, 1904 – March 14, 1995) was a farmer and politician, elected as U.S. Representative from Mississippi's 5th and 4th congressional districts, serving from 1943 to 1965.

He surprisingly lost the 1964 election by a substantial margin, when his Republican opponent, Prentiss Walker, benefited from voters supporting Barry Goldwater in his presidential campaign in the state.

Like nearly all other Mississippi Democrats, he was an ardent segregationist and signed the Southern Manifesto after the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregated schools were unconstitutional.

[2] Winstead was swept out in large part from the district and state swinging dramatically to support Barry Goldwater's presidential bid.

From 1968 to 1971, he was appointed as the commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Public Welfare under Governor John Bell Williams, one of his former U.S. House colleagues.