THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Kathy Webb

“I Jumped into the Women’s Movement and Gay Rights Movement with Both Feet.”

Activist and Lawmaker. Pulaski County, Arkansas NOW President. Arkansas Gay Rights, first gay organization in Arkansas. National Secretary of NOW for two terms, 1982-1987. Founding president of the Chicago-area Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation. First openly gay member of the Arkansas General Assembly. First woman to chair the Joint Budget Committee. Chair of the Arkansas Assembly Economic and Tax Policy Committee and member of the House Rules Committee; the Arkansas House Education Committee; the City, County and Local Affairs Committee; and the Arkansas Legislative Council. Executive Director of the AR Hunger Relief Alliance. City Director, representing Ward 3, on the Little Rock City Board of Directors.

Interviewed by Mary Jean Collins, VFA Historian, December 2020

Photo 1. Geraldine Ferraro with NOW Officers Kathy Webb, Alice Chapman, Judy Goldsmith, Lois Reckitt and Mary Jean Collins. Photo 2. Alice Chapman, Kathy Webb, Mary Jean Collins and Judy Goldsmith. Photo 3. Barack Obama and Kathy Webb, 2012.