Remarkable Lexington civil rights activist and educator Audrey Grevious died on Friday at the age of 86. 

Grevious was elected president of Lexington’s NAACP chapter in 1957, after serving as a member and secretary during her college years. As a civil rights activist in the 1960s, she was credited with organizing numerous protests and sit-ins in the Lexington area.

Grevious endured backlash during these protests, as she told the Lexington Herald-Leader in a 2004 series that highlighted stories from the civil rights movement. These stories were overlooked by local media like the Lexington Herald and the Lexington Leader. 

At one protest, Grevious and a group stood behind a chain at a downtown business singing the hymn “Yield Not to Temptation.” As they sang, the business manager continued to snap the chain, hitting Grevious’ shins and causing a pain that ached for decades. Another time, during a 1960 lunch counter sit-in, a waitress intentionally spilled a glass of Coca-Cola on Grevious, according to the Herald-Leader.

Her brother, Robert Jefferson, who was also a former Urban County Councilman, said that Grevious suffered from Alzheimer’s for the past seven years.

He said what he admired most about Grevious was her contribution to advance social justice in Lexington, a contribution recognized by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights Hall of Fame in 2012.

“My favorite thing about my sister is during the civil rights movement she was committed to serve to overcome everything bad that existed in that time,” Jefferson said.

Grevious studied education and became a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority chapter at Kentucky State University, formerly known as Kentucky State College. 

After college, she worked to reform delinquent boys as a teacher and principal at Kentucky Village, now the Blackburn Correctional Complex. After the school closed, she continued to teach at Maxwell Elementary School.

A Delta Sigma Theta sorority service will be held for Grevious at Pilgrim Baptist Church on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 11:30 a.m. Visitation for Grevious will be held at the church from noon to 1 p.m., followed immediately by the funeral.