Henry Frye

Henry Frye was an African American who was born in Ellerbe, North Carolina to his parents, WAlter and Pearl Frye, on Agust 1, 1932. He is still alive today. He grew up in rural part of Greensboro. As a boy he thought he wanted to be a pharmacist, chemist, or a biochemist. He was really smart. He graduated from Ellerbe Colored High School. It was an all black school. He went to North Carolina A & T State University. He graduated with a biology major and a minor in chemistry and air science. After college he went ino the United States Air Force and became a captain there. While in the Air Force he went to South Korea and Japan. His service in the military was from 1953 to 1955. Henry Frye married Edith Shirley Taylor on August 25, 1956. He has two sons, Henry Eric and Harlan Elbert. He still loves to golf, go bowling, and write poetry. He also serves as a deacon in his church.

In 1956, when Henry tried to register to vote in his hometown he was told he didnt pass the literacy test and so he couldn't vote. He thought that was really weird because it didn't make sense that he could graduate from college, serve as Captain of the Air Force and be enrolled at UNC Law School and then not pass a literacy test. He told the chairman of the board of elections about this and then passed the literacy test and was able to vote.

In 1968 he became the first African American elected to the North Carolina legislature. In 1983 he became the first African American appointed as an associate justice to the court. His biggest first was on September 7, 1999 when he took the oath of office as the first African American chief justice of the North Carolina Sipreme Court. He paved the way for a lot of other African Americans to be succesful. The best advice that henry ever got was from a high school principal who said, "winners never quit, and quitters never win." He took that advice seriously and that is one of the reasons that he went so far in his career and paving a way for other African Americans to follow.

By: Joel D.