Richard Mays
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Richard Leon Mays Sr. (born August 5, 1943) an American retired politician, judge, lawyer, and businessman from the U.S. state of
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...
. Elected to the
Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House has 100 members elected from an equal number of constituencies across the state. Each distr ...
in 1972, he was one of the first three African Americans to serve in the
Arkansas General Assembly The General Assembly of Arkansas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house Arkansas Senate with 35 members, and the lower Arkansas House of Representatives with 1 ...
since the
Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...
. Governor
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
appointed Mays to the
Arkansas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Arkansas is the highest court in the state judiciary of Arkansas. It has ultimate and largely discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all state court cases that involve a point of state law, and original jurisdiction ...
in 1980.


Early life and education

Mays was born on August 5, 1943, in
Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...
, the younger son of Barnett George Mays and Dorothy Mae (Greenlee) Mays. His father owned and operated a restaurant and liquor store in
North Little Rock North Little Rock (often abbreviated "NLR") is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States. Located on the north side of the Arkansas River, it is the twin city of Little Rock. In the late nineteenth century, it was annexed by Little Ro ...
. Richard Mays graduated from Horace Mann High School in 1961 and received his bachelor's degree from
Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...
in 1965. He received his law degree in 1968 from the
University of Arkansas School of Law The University of Arkansas School of Law is the law school of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a State university system, state university. It has around 445 students enrolled in its Juris Doctor (J.D.) and Master of Law (LL.M ...
, from which he was the first African American to graduate in over a decade. After graduation, Mays worked as a
U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
trial attorney before returning to Little Rock a year later as a deputy prosecutor. He was the first African American prosecutor for the 6th Circuit Court in Pulaski County and perhaps the first Black prosecutor in Arkansas history. In 1971, he entered private practice with Walker, Kaplan, and Lavey, the first racially integrated law firm in Arkansas.


Political and judicial career

In 1972, Mays ran for a heavily Democratic seat in the
U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
, losing the primary election to
Arkansas Attorney General The attorney general of Arkansas, usually known simply as the attorney general (AG), is one of Arkansas's seven constitutional officers. The officeholder serves as the state's top law enforcement officer and consumer advocate. History The at ...
Ray Thornton Raymond Hoyt Thornton Jr. (July 16, 1928 – April 13, 2016)Arkansas CourtsA Self-Guided Tour of Justice Building Portraits(2016), p. 11. was an American attorney and politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Representative for Arkansas's 4th c ...
. The same year, Mays ran for a Black-majority seat in the
Arkansas House of Representatives The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House has 100 members elected from an equal number of constituencies across the state. Each distr ...
, won the election, and served from 1973 to 1977. He co-founded the law firm of Mays, Byrd & Associates. In December 1979, Governor
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
appointed Mays to the
Arkansas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Arkansas is the highest court in the state judiciary of Arkansas. It has ultimate and largely discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all state court cases that involve a point of state law, and original jurisdiction ...
to fill out the unexpired term of Justice Conley Byrd, who retired due to ill health. Mays served on the bench until January 1981. He worked full-time for Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and co-chaired the Cinton-
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presidential inauguration committee, raising more than $1 million. He also worked as a lobbyist and business consultant, facilitating a
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contract to build a power plant in
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. Mays has served on numerous state boards and commissions, including the Arkansas Ethics Commission, the Economic Development Commission, the Governor's Mansion Commission, the Bank Board, and the Claims Commission, which he served as vice chair and then as chair from 2005 to 2015. At the national level, he served on the U.S. South African Business Development Committee and on the board of the
American Judicature Society The American Judicature Society (AJS) is an independent, non-partisan membership organization working nationally to protect the integrity of the American justice system. AJS's membership — including judges, lawyers, and members of the public — ...
. In 2013, he became chair of the board of directors of Soul of the South Television, a Black regional TV network. He was an Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail honoree in 2015 and an Arkansas Black Hall of Fame inductee in 2016. He has also taught law at the University of Arkansas School of Law.


Personal life

Mays married Jennifer Winstead, whom he had dated in high school. They had two children, Tiffany and Richard Mays Jr., who both eventually became partners in their father's law firm. Mays's first wife died in 2000, and he married Thai-American business executive Supha Xayprasith in 2012. She ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2022 but was eliminated in the primary election, garnering only 4.3% of the vote statewide.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mays, Richard 1943 births Living people African-American state legislators in Arkansas Democratic Party members of the Arkansas House of Representatives Politicians from Little Rock, Arkansas Arkansas Democrats University of Arkansas School of Law alumni Justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court Arkansas lawyers Howard University alumni 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American lawyers African-American judges 20th-century members of the Arkansas General Assembly