Former NC Justice Henry Frye and trailblazing activist Shirley Frye to be commemorated in downtown sculpture

Featured photo: On July 18, council unanimously agreed to accept a statue of Justice Henry Frye, the first African-American chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, and his wife Shirley Frye, a leader and activist in the community, in a downtown park. (screenshot)

During the July 18 meeting, council unanimously agreed to accept a statue of Justice Henry Frye, the first African-American chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, and his wife Shirley Frye, a leader and activist in the community. The sculpture has been funded and provided by the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, and will be placed in a downtown park.

Triad City Beat talked to former District 3 council member and mayoral candidate Justin Outling, who spoke highly of the famous Greensboro power couple.

“Shirley and Henry Frye are friends, mentors, community leaders — and one of the greatest honors I had was practicing law with Justice Frye for several years before his retirement a few years ago,” Outling said.

When Outling ran for mayor in 2022, the Fryes both endorsed him for the seat over incumbent Nancy Vaughan, who ended up winning re-election.

“And he’s the kindest person you’ll ever meet,” said Ted Oliver of Davenport and Co. of Justice Frye. 

Justice Frye also served as a state representative in the NC General Assembly and helped eliminate the vestiges of Jim Crow from state law. The Fryes both graduated from NC A&T State University in 1953.

Upon installation at Center City Park downtown, the sculpture will become the property of the city. Installation will likely occur in September, Outling said.

The Board of Directors of Greensboro Downtown Parks, Inc. showed unanimous support to accept the gift on April 19 and on May 10 the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to recommend the city’s acceptance of the sculpture and support its placement within Center City Park.

“The only person who perhaps eclipses Justice Frye — in terms of brilliance and being a wonderful person — is Shirley,” Outling noted.

A schoolteacher, Shirley Frye helped integrate the two segregated YWCAs in Greensboro in the 1970s and was involved in a number of civic causes, Outling said. She also “worked for a local TV station, and advised and helped lead our community in a number of roles including as a member of the Joseph Bryan Foundation,” Outling told the council.

“And she was my Girl Scout leader,” Mayor Pro Tempore Yvonne Johnson quipped.

“A trailblazer, even among — and for — trailblazers,” Outling chuckled.

Outling said that many people in the community were thinking about how to “recognize these titans, and really things just came together naturally.”

Sculptor Maria Kirby-Smith was commissioned to create the piece, which has been completed and is now awaiting a granite base. Kirby-Smith was also the artist behind the statues of former Greensboro mayor Jim Melvin and Joseph Bryan as well as the O. Henry statue.

“One of the most interesting things,” Outling said of Henry Frye, is that during meetings he would “catch everything, observe, and he’ll write a poem that captures the meeting.” Frye would then recite the poetry at the end of the meeting, Outling said.

“Summarizing really dry, like statistical kinds of presentations, really just dry stuff,” added Oliver.

Even in their nineties, the impact that the Fryes have on the community is colossal. Council member Tammi Thurm expressed gratitude that the couple will be honored by the city during their golden years. 

“I want to thank you all for taking this initiative while they’re alive, and so that we have the opportunity to thank them and honor them so that they know how much they are appreciated and how much they mean to our community,” Thurm said.

Outling said that the Bryan Foundation had been “insanely generous to pay the lion’s share of it” and that the city’s Parks and Recreation Director Phil Fleischmann, a “great steward of taxpayer resources,” had worked with the foundation regarding some of the maintenance costs associated with it.

“One of the things I came to appreciate as a council member was, there are gifts, but everything costs money. So even when you get a wonderful statue you have to think about the fact that it’s going to cost money over time to maintain that statue,” Outling said. 

“It’ll be a wonderful statue to commemorate the contributions of the Fryes to the city, the state and the country,” Outling told TCB.

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