Ralph Frasier, who in 1955 became one of the first three Black undergraduate students to attend UNC-Chapel Hill, died last week. He was 85.

Frasier, along with brother LeRoy and John Lewis Brandon – all three of whom were graduates of Hillside High School in Durham – applied to UNC the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate but equal” schools for Black and white students were unconstitutional. The university rejected all three, claiming the Brown ruling did not apply to colleges and universities. The trio sued the UNC Board of Trustees, won their case, and eventually enrolled at the school.

L-R: LeRoy Frasier, John Lewis Brandon, Ralph Frasier

Frasier would not graduate from Carolina, leaving after three years to enlist in the Army. He would later earn both his undergraduate and law degrees from North Carolina Central University in Durham. Frasier then became a successful executive in the banking world, working in Wachovia’s legal department before moving on to Huntington Bancshares Incorporated in Columbus, OH, where he ascended to the role of Director of Diversified Financial Institution. He left Huntington to work in a Columbus-based law firm until his retirement in 2005.

To learn more about Frasier, read his full obituary here.

 

Featured image via UNC

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