AUDREY LOUISE ROSS GREVIOUS

Audrey Louise Ross Grevious was born in Lexington, Kentucky, where she attended Constitution Elementary School and then Dunbar Junior and High School, both segregated schools. From an early age, she dreamed of becoming a teacher.

After graduating from Dunbar in 1948, she enrolled in Kentucky State University. During this time, Grevious began to realize the depth of racism and everyday discrimination in Kentucky. She graduated from Kentucky State in 1957 with a degree in elementary education. After graduation, she became president of the Lexington NAACP.

Grevious started teaching at the Kentucky Village Reform School—now the Blackburn Correctional Complex. While teaching grade school there, she noticed how segregated the institution was and challenged the “separate but equal” policy by going with her students to eat lunch in the Whites-only cafeteria.

For more than 60 years, she has fought for civil and human rights with a determination and strength to overcome beatings and threats during her participation in sit-ins to integrate restaurants, department stores, and movie theaters. In the 1950s and 1960s, she faced countless threats to burn down her home because of her stand for equity and social justice.