Henry Ell Frye, attorney, legislator, businessman and judge, has played a major role in local and state history since 1968 when he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives. The first African—American member of the General Assembly since 1899 and the 128th in N.C. history, Frye served twelve years in the House and two years in the Senate. Appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1983, Frye was the first African-American selected for that distinguished position. Born in Ellerbe in 1932, he graduated from N.C. A & T State University in 1953 and from the U.N.C. Law School in 1959. In 1963 he was appointed Assistant U.S. District Attorney, another first for a North Carolina African—American. An economic pioneer also, Frye organized Greensboro National Bank, the city's first bank owned by African-Americans, and served as president from its opening in 1971 until 1981.
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