Michael Oglesby

Michael Oglesby was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1954. He was the youngest of six siblings, born to a carpenter father and a stay-at-home mother. His parents divorced not long after he was born, leading Oglesby to spend his childhood in Monroe with his mother and four sisters. After high school in 1973, he moved briefly to New Orleans with his partner and a few friends before relocating to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he and several others formed the Mulberry House Collective. His early efforts in the Gay Liberation Movement primarily focused on breaking new ground for gay social organization outside bar culture, but he later expanded his activism efforts to include a push for the rights of working-class people, people of color, and women.