ELLERBE – With over 250 attendees looking on, the sign for the newly dedicated Henry E. Frye Bridge was unveiled at the Ellerbe Town Hall Tuesday afternoon.
The bridge, which is located on Green Lake Road in Ellerbe, was dedicated to Frye as a result of his serving as Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. The Mineral Springs Improvement Council had worked with the North Carolina Department of Transportation in pursuit of the bridge’s dedication for the better part of the last year.
Current North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper was in attendance for the official unveil, as well as Senator Tom McInnis and former Senator Gene McLaurin.
Welcomed by North Carolina Board of Transportation Chairman Mike Fox, the standing-room-only crowd filled the Ellerbe Fire Station adjacent to the Town Hall.
Several guest speakers were on hand to offer their congratulations and comments, which included Richmond County Commissioner (and Ellerbe native) Thad Ussery, and Mineral Springs Improvement Council Vice-President Bishop Arlester Simpson. Also on hand was Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Jim Trogdon, and ultimately Governor Cooper, the keynote speaker.
As a native of Ellerbe, Frye is perhaps the highest achieving individual to have come from the small town in the northern reaches of Richmond County.
The son of Walter A. and Pearl Motley Frye, Henry Ell Frye was born on Aug. 1, 1932, on a farm outside of Ellerbe, where he worked through his schooling years.
After graduating first in his class from Mineral Springs Colored High School, Frye matriculated at what is now North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Winston-Salem, graduating with honors (summa cum laude) in 1953.
Frye later joined the Air Force, rising to the rank of captain while serving in Korea and Japan.
After all of his success, Frye returned to North Carolina in 1955. Back home, Frye was confronted with the old Jim Crow laws; and he was ultimately refused when attempting to register to vote. And that moment stuck with him.
“One can curse the darkness or turn on the light,” Frye said, explaining this event had inspired him. This sparked his interest pursuing law, and he enrolled in law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Chief Justice Frye speaks at his bridge dedication ceremony Tuesday.
Subsequent to obtaining his law degree, Frye was appointed as a United States attorney in 1963, one of the first African-Americans to hold such a position in the south.
Inspired by the message of Dr. Martin Luther King and others, Frye felt compelled to do more for the furtherance of civil rights and racial equality. He was elected in 1968 as the first African-American legislator in the state of North Carolina since the 1800s.
Frye continued his political career in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1969 through 1980, moving on to the state Senate for the 1981-82 term. It was during this tenure that he was greatly instrumental in eliminating the vestiges of the old Jim Crow laws that had effectively denied him the right to vote in 1955.
Former Governor Jim Hunt appointed Frye to the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1983, making him the first African-American to be so named. He was subsequently elected in his own right to terms of eight years in 1984, and again in 1992, thus serving 17 years (1983-1999) on the state’s highest court before being appointed chief justice to replace the retiring Burley Mitchell in 1999.
Although he ultimately lost the next election to I. Beverly Lake, Frye continued his service to the state in multiple ways. He was an instructor at the North Carolina Central University School of Law and practiced law with the Greensboro firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendo, Humphrey & Leonard.
Awards and accolades seem to just keep flowing in the direction of Frye, as he refuses to slow the pace of his already highly successful life and career.
In 2007, he received the North Carolina Award for Public Service. Frye was named honorary co-chairman of the U.S. Senate campaign of Kenneth Lewis in 2009. He was also named chairman of the North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership in 2013.
It was only fitting that the State of North Carolina Board of Transportation bestowed its highest honor upon this native son of Ellerbe who has achieved so much in the face of tremendous adversity.
Gov. Cooper told guests to remember that when driving across the bridge, they should understand it’s a representation of Frye himself.
Chief Justice Frye was the last to speak and, befitting his persona, his remarks were humble and appreciative, yet inspirational.
“I really don’t know how to take all of this,” Frye said while recognizing his wife of 61 years (Shirley Taylor Frye) and family as well as the honored speakers and special guests filling the room. “It doesn’t get much better than this.”
Immediately crediting Commissioner Ussery and Governor Cooper for their references to the symbolic nature of having a bridge named for someone who epitomized the “connecting” of two sides (whites and blacks), Chief Justice Frye went on to note how, “we can’t all be a Martin Luther King, and we can’t all be a political leader, but we can all do something.”
It would certainly seem that Chief Justice Frye has practiced his preaching; he has undeniably “done something” during his lifetime, and now has a bridge in his hometown named for him in honor of those achievements.
