Campus News

Sesquicentennial Stories: Librarian and Integration Pioneer

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 19, 2013) — In celebration of the University of Kentucky's upcoming sesquicentennial in 2015, the 49th of 150 weekly installments remembers the accomplishments of Helen Fisher Frye, an alumna and Kentucky librarian known for her work in civil and human rights movements.

Helen Fisher Frye was born June 24, 1918, in Danville, Ky., to George Fisher and Lettie Moran Fisher. She earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education at Kentucky State University in 1942, and a master's degree in secondary education from Indiana University in 1949.

In 1963, Frye received a library science (now library and information sciences) degree from the American Library Association-accredited library school at UK. Her path to higher education through UK was a challenge however.

During her studies at the university, Frye and two other students attempted to attend a UK extension class taught in Danville, but they were forced to drop the class because they were African Americans. Though the university graduate program was integrated in 1949, it was interpreted to apply only to students who took classes on the main college campus. Frye attended two class sessions before she was notified that she had not been officially accepted. Frye filed a lawsuit, but it was dropped when none of the other African-American students would testify that they too had been forced to drop the extension class. Eventually, Frye went to the UK campus to earn her library degree.

Among her many accomplishments outside campus, Frye helped organize the first integrated production on the Centre College campus in 1951, "Porgy and Bess," featuring Danville native R. Todd Duncan. She was also one of the first African-American students to enroll at Centre College.

Frye was an educator and librarian who participated in the integration of the Danville school system. She retired from teaching in 1980, but remained active on the human rights and public housing commissions in Danville.

In 2006, Frye was nominated by Danville native and Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker, associate professor of English at UK, for the university's Lyman T. Johnson Award, then chosen as one of the two recipients by the UK Libraries and the UK School of Library and Information Science to receive the award for her many years of service as a librarian, teacher and civil rights activist.

The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History has two interviews with Frye.

This story on UK's history is presented by UK Special Collections. Special Collections is home to UK Libraries' collection of rare books, Kentuckiana, the Archives, the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, the King Library Press and the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center. The mission of Special Collections is to locate and preserve materials documenting the social, cultural, economic and political history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, (859) 257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu