Looking
back on his parents' struggles, Frank W. Ballance, Jr. said, "Tenant farming
is the first cousin to slavery, and like slavery, it destroyed people, but my
father survived and never surrendered his manhood." He credits these lessons
with making him the strong man that he is today.
As a youth, Frank W. Ballance,
Jr. knew of the global struggle for human and political rights and efforts by
African leaders to gain independence. He greatly admired Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah,
Zaire's PatriceLumumbo and South Africa's imprisoned Nelson Mandela.
He was also cognizant of
injustices in this country. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Congressman Adam Clayton
Powell and Miss Fannie Lou Hamer were his role models.
As his parents planned and
worked to improve their lives, they demanded that their children set goals,
study and work hard to attend college. After graduating from high school in
Bertie County, Ballance earned his bachelor and law degrees from North Carolina
Central University. While in college, he was a student leader and participated
in the "Sit-In Movement" and other civil rights activities designed to secure
equal rights for black Americans.
Ballance was alaw professor
and librarian at South Carolina State College of Law until 1966 and then moved
to Warren County, North Carolina to establish the law firm of Clayton and Ballance.
Currently, he is a senior partner in the low firm, Frank W. Ballance, Jr. and
Associates in Warrenton, North Carolina. His clientele is racially diverse and
the firm provides expert legal services to people in need.
Frank W. Ballance, Jr. served
in the North Carolina General Assembly as both a representative and senator.
In 1988, he was elected to the senate, and in 1 994, his peers made him majority
whip. In addition to these duties, Senator Ballance is chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee and the Public Safety Committee as well as vice chairman of both
the Judiciary and Election Laws Committees.
Senator Ballance is a constant
reader of history books because he realizes that no society can flourish and
prosper without a shared sense of the past, an outcome achieved only by honest
historical research and writing.
