Although not fully realized until the USSC ruling Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), Arkansas was the first southern state to extend marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Central to this legal conflict and to later cases involving equal treatment for same-sex was attorney Cheryl Maples. 

Maples, a mother of five, enrolled in college at 30,  eventually earning a law degree in 1987. Often assisting clients for free until her death in 2019, she was  characterized as a civil rights champion and a "social worker with a law degree."

Read more about Cheryl Maples in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette »

— Sponsored by the Chancellor's
Commission on Women