GREENSBORO, N.C. — Henry and Shirley Frye should be names you know. They have buildings and bridges named after them. Their lives have changed the lives of people in the city of Greensboro and all around the state.
Together, this trailblazing couple will receive the key to the City of Greensboro in a presentation downtown, right in front of the statue of the two in Center City Park.
The two played important roles in the community, in our state history, as well as civil rights history.
It all started at North Carolina A&T. Both Henry and Shirley graduated in 1953. From there, Henry went to law school at UNC. He became the first African American student to graduate from the UNC School of Law in 1959. Not just a lawyer, Henry became the first black state lawmaker in North Carolina, serving first as a Representative and then as a North Carolina Senator.
In 1983 he was appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court, becoming the first African-American Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
In an interview with him in 2020, he said this about his appointment:
"When the announcement was made in the newspaper that I was being appointed to the Supreme Court of North Carolina. the article said something like, 'Where's he going to eat while he travels around in the district'? Sometimes we make two steps forward and three backward and sometimes we make two steps forward and one backwards. I like that second one better."
Shirley Frye is a lifetime educator. She started as a dedicated teacher in the classroom and then worked for the State Department of Public Instruction. She connected the community as the Vice President of Community Relations at WFMY News 2. She helped integrate YWCAs across the area and was a community advocate for decades. In 2016, the YWCA named its building on Wendover Avenue after Shirley.
In June of 2024, the NC A&T alums saw their names on the main Academic Building on campus. The renaming of the building to the Henry E. and Shirley T. Frye Hall took place 71 years after the two graduated.
In February of 2024, The Joseph M. Bryan Foundation put a statue of the couple in Center City Park to honor the two for all of their service and accomplishments.