GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Mayor Nancy Vaughan will present Justice Henry Frye and his wife Shirley with the “prestigious” Key to the City, the City of Greensboro announced in a press release Thursday.
The Fryes made a name for themselves through tremendous contributions to the Greensboro community, to the state of North Carolina, to nonprofit, academic, civic and professional organizations and to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the Fryes’ alma mater from which they both graduated in 1953.
According to the A&T Alumni website , “Frye was the first African American to complete the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill three-year law program in 1959, the first Black assistant district attorney in the United States in 1963, the first African American in North Carolina’s House of Representatives in the 20 th Century in 1968, and our state’s first Supreme Court justice of color in 1983.”