Restrictions to Access

Folder 20 contains two documents that have been photocopied and redacted to protect the privacy of a living individual. The original documents will remain closed until the individual has died.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Grigsby Family Papers #5141, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received on deposit and as gifts from Pat Bates in December 2003 (Acc. 99679, 99680) and May 2007 (Acc. 100666); as gift from Alfred Grigsby in December 2003 (Acc. 99681); and as gift from Miriam Grigsby Bates in December 2003 (Acc. 99673) and August 2006 (Acc. 100951).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• African Americans--Arizona.
• African Americans--Connecticut.
• African Americans--Education.
• African Americans--Michigan.
• African Americans--Photographs.
• African American families--Arizona.
• African American families--Connecticut.
• African American families--Michigan.
• African American artists.
• African American civil rights workers.
• African American college teachers.
• African American families--North Carolina.
• African American families--South Carolina.
• African American school principals.
• African American teachers.
• African American women teachers.
• African American women--North Carolina--Societies and clubs.
• African Americans--North Carolina.
• African Americans--Politics and government--20th century.
• African Americans--South Carolina.
• Bates family.
• Book clubs (Discussion groups)
• Congress of Racial Equality.
• Grigsby family.
• Grigsby, J. E. (Jefferson Eugene), d. 1975.
• Grigsby, J. Eugene (Jefferson Eugene), 1918-
• Grigsby, Purry Leone Dixon, d. 1977.
• Grigsby, Snow F., d. 1981.
• School Workers Federal Credit Union.
• Thurmond, Strom, 1902-2003.
• Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

• J. Eugene Grigsby Papers (#5295)

The Grigsby family of North Carolina and South Carolina; New Haven, Conn.; Detroit, Mich.; and Phoenix, Ariz., descend from Fred Grigsby, born in 1867 and the son of a former slave. Fred Grigsby married Kitty Pitts and with her had eleven children: Jefferson Eugene (J. E.), Snow Flake (Snow), George Talmadge (Ted), Yarnell Jonathan (Y. J.), Joseph Howard (Howard), Rufus Vincent, Sunnie, Ella Belle (Belle), Lucille, Annie Jones (Jo), and J. Mildred. He later married Theresa Brown and with her had Alfred C. Grigsby. Fred Grigsby died in 1957.

Snow F. Grigsby was a publicist and civil rights activist in Detroit and edited the Postal Alliance for many years. Snow married Eliza Redd of Savannah, Ga., and with her had Gloria and Fred. Snow Grigsby died in 1981.

Rufus Grigsby was a photographer and a carpenter. In 1957, he ran for city council in a small town in North Carolina. Rufus Grigsby died in 1977.

J. E. Grigsby (Jefferson Eugene Grigsby Sr.) attended Johnson C. Smith University and Columbia University and received his master's degree from Ohio State University. Grigsby was principal of Second Ward High School in Charlotte, N.C., from 1931 until his retirement in 1957. In 1941, J. E. co-founded the School Workers Federal Credit Union (now First Legacy Federal Credit Union) in Charlotte, N.C., for African American teachers and employees of the public school system who, at that time, were prohibited from joining the North Carolina State Credit Union. He and his wife Purry Leone Dixon Grigsby, a school teacher, had four children: J. Eugene (Jefferson Eugene Grigsby Jr., also known as Gene), Donald D., Marvin O., and Miriam. J. E. Grigsby died in 1975. Purry Leone Dixon Grigsby died in 1977.

J. Eugene Grigsby (Gene) is an artist and art educator. He attended Johnson C. Smith University for one year and then transferred to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., where he graduated with a degree in art in 1938. In 1940, Grigsby earned a master's degree from Ohio State University and began a career in art education. During World War II, he served in the 573rd Ordinance Ammunition Company. In 1943, he married Rosalyn Thomasena Marshall. After the war, the couple moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where Grigsby resumed teaching art. He completed a doctorate in art education from New York University in 1963 and three years later joined the faculty of Arizona State University. Gene and Thomasena Grigsby have two sons: Jefferson Eugene III and Marshall.

Miriam Grigsby completed an X-ray technician course at Yale University hospital and was a certified teacher in Connecticut. She married Bernell Bates and with him had two daughters: Patty and Karen. As of 2009, Miriam Grigsby lived in Charlotte, N.C.

The Grigsby family papers consist of correspondence and invitations, funeral and school materials, newspaper clippings and other printed biographical material, photographs, and other materials documenting the Grigsby family, especially publicist, civil rights activist, and editor Snow F. Grigsby, artist and art educator J. Eugene Grigsby (Gene), school principal J. E. Grigsby and school teacher Purry Leone Dixon Grigsby, and the family of teacher Miriam Grigsby Bates. Educational achievement is the central theme of the collection, in evidence in transcripts, diplomas, and photographs of family members receiving degrees. Other education-related materials include a letter from one Grigsby generation to the next providing personal insights on Langston Hughes for a research paper; a 1938 photograph of Purry Leone Dixon Grigsby teaching in a Biddleville (Charlotte, N.C.) elementary school classroom; and a small amount of material relating to the School Workers Federal Credit Union, which was founded in 1941 in Charlotte, N.C., by J. E. Grigsby, for African American teachers and employees of the public school system. Also of note are a 1942 "living letter" recorded at a USO Club; a 1980 letter that included a then-confidential list of the Detroit chapter of Tuskegee Airmen; a copy of a 1980 letter from Snow F. Grigsby to fellow Republican Strom Thurmond on racism, politics, and the economy; a CORE sit-in songs (Congress of Racial Equality) booklet; and the 1942 program for the women's West End Book Club of Charlotte, N.C.

• Audiodiscs (D-5171/1-2)
• Photographs (PF-5171/1)