WATERLOO - For E.P. McKnight, social justice and human rights issues came into focus when she attended junior high in Mississippi years ago.

It was during the civil rights movement, and she remembers suddenly being aware of marches going on.

"Maybe it was related to the Rosa Parks situation, but also being exposed to some of the racism that occurred in Mississippi was enough to ignite a desire to see change," McKnight said. "I saw some things at a very young age that I knew (weren't) right."

Another big milestone happened to McKnight in seventh grade, when she wrote her first play and won praise from her English teacher.

Those skills in her early teenage years translated into a life of acting, writing and educating, both in New York and Los Angeles.

But McKnight hasn't forgotten her roots. She returns to them in "I Question America: The Legacy of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer," a one-woman play McKnight wrote and stars in, and she will perform that one-act during her keynote speech Thursday at the Cedar Valley Conference on Human Rights.

"Fannie Lou Hamer's life speaks of her being a great humanitarian," McKnight said. "She spent all of her life not just focusing on civil rights, but human rights."

David Meeks, executive director of the Waterloo Commission on Human Rights, the group hosting the conference, said McKnight's morning keynote will be a 90-minute presentation to give her time to speak as well as present the one-woman show.

"I think that it shows a reflection of ... how human the struggle is," Meeks said. "It's not just about the big namers that you know, but about everyday people and how everyday people overcame the challenges of racism and discrimination."

The theme of the 11th annual conference is "Struggle for Equal Rights: Path to Freedom." Meeks said in addition to adult participants, 165 students from five Cedar Valley high schools are expected to attend.

Edward James III, a student at the University of Chicago who blogs for the Black Youth Project, will give the afternoon keynote.