Legacy of trailblazers Henry and Shirley Frye will gaze over Greensboro for generations to come: Statue of beloved icons unveiled in Center City Park on Tuesday

Featured photo: The newly unveiled statue of Henry and Shirley Frye watches over Center City Park. (photo by Gale Melcher)

While Henry and Shirley Frye have long watched over Greensboro, making an indelible mark upon the city, the beloved couple now gazes over Center City Park as well.

On Tuesday morning, a statue of the legendary power couple was unveiled in the presence of their family and hundreds of guests, including North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former city councilmember Justin Outling and Mayor Nancy Vaughan.

Henry Frye was the first African-American chief justice on the NC Supreme Court and Shirley Frye was a teacher and leader in education for many years. The Fryes both graduated from NC A&T State University in 1953. The university’s choir sang during the ceremony.

Shirley Frye told the crowd that she and her husband have “tried to live a meaningful life.”

“We believe sincerely that we were placed on this Earth not to be served, but to serve. Please know that we will continue to work to the best of our health and abilities, to do all that is within our power to help make our city, our county and our state the best that it can be.”

“We love you,” she said.

Ever the jokester, her husband added that he plans on running for president, but that he might reconsider. 

“He will reconsider,” his wife quipped. 

“You all see who runs things here,” he chuckled.

Cooper loved superheroes as a child, and he views the Fryes as “real-life superheroes.”

The “dynamic duo” has done “amazing things that seem impossible,” he said.

Henry Frye was the first Black legislator elected to the NC General Assembly in the 20th century, while Shirley Frye succeeded in integrating the two segregated YWCAs in Greensboro in the 1970s.

“Can you imagine the pressure of being the first?” Cooper asked the surrounding faces on the park’s lawn.

“The expectations that you want to meet while so many people, steeped in prejudice, wanted you to fail. Carrying the weight of the need to succeed for all who come behind you. That takes extraordinary courage,” he said. The Fryes “paved the path of opportunity.”

“I’m so moved,” Henry Frye said, adding, “I’m not used to people saying too many good things about me.”

While Henry Frye served in the US Air Force and was a college graduate, Jim Crow-era laws still forced him to take a literacy test in order to register to vote. On Aug. 25, 1956, the day he married Shirley, he was denied his right to vote. When Frye secured his seat in the NC General Assembly, the first piece of legislation he introduced was a constitutional amendment abolishing the literacy test.

As a former elected official, Outling said that it is a “fight to oppose your opponents, but it’s even more difficult to stand up against your supporters in furtherance of doing what is right.” When Outling ran for mayor in 2022, the Fryes both endorsed him for the seat over incumbent Vaughan, who was ultimately re-elected. 

Vaughan called the Fryes “truly movie-worthy” and said that their union would “shape Greensboro and the civil rights movement for decades to come.”

Outling told TCB in July that one of the greatest honors of his life was working with Henry Frye at Brooks-Pierce law firm. Henry Frye often got sandwiches with young Outling when he was a “baby attorney” at Brooks-Pierce, Outling told the crowd, adding that he gleaned a lot of wisdom and guidance from those lunches. While Frye has done many great things, that quality time is what’s most memorable to Outling. 

Other city leaders such as Councilmember Tammi Thurm have noted that they are grateful the Fryes are being honored “while they’re alive” so that they know “how much they are appreciated and how much they mean” to the community, Thurm said in July.

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