Mrs. Dressie Mae Zeigler Sloan (1913-2009) was a hard-driving and outspoken civil rights heroine who committed her life to fighting for the rights of those citizens in Monticello who had been disenfranchised and shut out of the democratic process. One of Jefferson County’s oldest and most respected citizens, Mrs. Sloan was a hairstylist and entrepreneur. Very civic-minded, she was one of the first involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, often being threatened and victimized by cross burnings. As a member of the Jefferson County Voter’s League, she went door-to-door registering black voters, which resulted in her home and beauty shop being burned to the ground by the Ku Klux Klan in 1966. This incident earned a mention in JET Magazine. She was a charter member of the MLK Foundation and, since 1947, a Life Member of the Jefferson County Branch NAACP. Her counsel and support were sought by politicians at all levels. A very spiritual person, she was a longtime member of Memorial Missionary Baptist Church, where she was a deaconess, Sunday School teacher and greeter and the BYPU. She was also a member of Memorial Pallbearers Lodge and a volunteer with the Jefferson County Senior Citizens Society. While she had no children of her own, Mrs. Sloan played pivotal roles in the lives of countless young men and women as a surrogate mother.