Note: Audrey Grevious, former president of the Lexington chapter of the NAACP, has died (according to an obituary in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Jan. 09, 2017). This original one-on-one interview, part of the Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project, was produced by the Kentucky Oral History Commission and Historical Society.
As president of the Lexington chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Audrey Grevious worked with Julia Lewis, president of the Congress on Racial Equality, to organize protests of local businesses that refused to serve blacks. The groups picketed grocery stores, theaters, and dime-store food counters.
The unusual level of cooperation between the Lexington NAACP and CORE chapters and their careful communication with police contributed to a largely peaceful achievement of integration goals.
[Editor’s note: We are having issues with our video player. If clicking the round play button on the screen doesn’t start the video, move your cursor to the black bar across the bottom of the player screen and click to start the video.]
Grevious was born in 1930 and attended segregated schools, where she was nourished by excellent teachers and was inspired to become a teacher herself. Grevious graduated from Lexington Dunbar High School and Kentucky State University.
She worked for many years at Kentucky Village Reform School (now called Blackburn Correctional Complex) and later taught in the Fayette County Public School system.
