Noma Watkins of Warren, Bradley County, Arkansas, served as a delegate to the 1992, 1994, and 1996 sessions of the Arkansas Silver Haired Legislature. In 1997, she served as a delegate from Arkansas to the Inaugural Session of the National Silver Haired Congress.

The first Silver Haired Legislature program was organized in 1973 in Missouri as a mock legislature of senior citizens; since then, thirty-one other states have implemented Silver Haired Legislature programs. The Arkansas Silver Haired Legislature has met every two years since 1978. Its purpose is to address and bring to the attention of the General Arkansas Assembly the state-level concerns of Arkansas seniors. The Arkansas Silver Haired Legislature is sponsored by the Division of Aging and Adult Services and the Arkansas Area Agencies on Aging.

The Silver Haired Legislature program organized on a national level in 1997 with the inaugural session of the National Silver Haired Congress (NSHC). The NSHC is a nonpartisan mock legislature consisting of 100 Silver Representatives and 435 Silver Senators, all United States citizens who are at least sixty years of age. The Silver Senators are elected or appointed to serve a four-year term; the Silver Representatives are elected or appointed to serve a two-year term. Silver Senators and Silver Representatives are elected at a state-level by registered voters who are at least sixty years of age. Since 1997, The NSHC has met annually in Washington, DC, to consider federal-level issues affecting senior citizens.