Henry Fry was the first African American chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Henry E. Frye reached adulthood just as the South was about to undergo revolution. African Americans like him could only hope that the future would be different from the past. He served as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, the state's third branch of government, at the end of his official career in 2001.
For the most of their lives, Frye and his wife Shirley led the way in innovations that improved the lives of African Americans. Beginning with his election to the state assembly in 1968, he worked steadily and resolutely to increase the prospects for African Americans in business, politics, and society at large.
