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Frye, 67 and regarded as the most liberal member of the high court, has served as an associate justice since 1983 when he was appointed by Hunt; he was elected to eight-year terms on the bench in 1984 and 1992. In 1968 he was the first African-American elected to the N.C. House of Representatives since Reconstruction. He served in the House until 1980 when he was elected to the state Senate, serving until 1982. Frye also has practiced law, served as a professor at N.C. Central University School of Law from 1965-1967, and served as an assistant U.S. district attorney. A Richmond County native, Frye is a graduate of N.C. A&T State University and the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law. At age 23, Frye wasn't allowed to register to vote in his hometown of Ellerbe when he failed the then-required literacy test often used to keep black people from voting. Frye couldn't name the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the 16th president. Thirteen years later, after he was elected to the state House, Frye pushed to remove the literacy test from the state constitution. Frye lives in Greensboro with his wife, the former Shirley Taylor, who is community relations director for WFMY-TV in Greensboro. They have two sons, Henry Jr., who was elected to the 18th District Superior Court in Greensboro, and Harlan, personnel director for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Chief Justice Mitchell, 58, had earlier announced that he will retire from the Supreme Court after 17 years on the bench on Sept. 1 and become a partner in the Raleigh office of Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, North Carolina's largest law firm. “It has been an honor to be only the 24th North Carolinian to serve as chief justice of North Carolina,” Mitchell said. “I will forever be grateful to the people of North Carolina who have elected and re-elected me six times.” Mitchell's proudest accomplishment is the elimination of a backlog of cases. “For the first time in the 180-year history of the Supreme Court, we now have absolutely no backlog and are able to calendar cases for arguments immediately after the briefs are filed,” he explained. Prior joining the court, Mitchell served as state secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety under Hunt from 1979 to 1982, as a judge of the Court of Appeals from 1977 to 1979, as Wake County district attorney from 1972 to 1977, and as an assistant state attorney general from 1969 to 1972. To fill the vacancy on the high court created by Mitchell's retirement, Hunt appointed his chief of staff and legislative counsel, Franklin E. Freeman Jr. of Raleigh, as an associate justice. Freeman, 54, is a former head of the state Administrative Office of the Courts and has served as a prosecutor, as an assistant to three members of the state Supreme Court and as state secretary of Correction. A native of Dobson in Surry County, Freeman graduated from the UNC-Chapel Hill in 1967, and received his juris doctor degree there in 1970. He began his career in public service in 1970 as a research assistant to former state Supreme Court Justice Dan K. Moore. To fill Freemon's job, Hunt picked as his new chief of staff Wayne McDevitt, 46, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). McDevitt, who earlier served as senior advisor to the governor, is a native of Marshall in Madison County who was appointed DENR Secretary in July 1997. To fill the top spot at DENR, Hunt elevated Bill Holman, the agency's assistant secretary for environmental protection, in a move that angered NCCBI and other business leaders. Before joining DENR last year, Holman for more than 20 years was the chief lobbyist for the N.C. Sierra Club and Conservation Council and briefly was director of government relations for the Nature Conservancy. NCCBI was dismayed at Holman's appointment because of fears his background as an environmental activist will cloud his decisions at DENR. — Steve Tuttle
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Henry
E. Frye, who went on lead an inspiring life as an attorney, civil
rights leader, state legislator and judge after he was refused
the right to vote in 1955, last month was named the first
African-American chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court. He
succeeds the retiring Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, who dropped
out of high school to join the Navy and who started his rise to
judicial prominence by getting a GED. 