During the early 1960s, with a population stabilized at around 580, the town installed fluorescent street lights about the same time that Highway 55 (Main Street) was widened. A general clean-up effort netted the town an award from a state appearance committee. Racially the town became less balanced with a stronger minority population existing to the late 1980s. During this period several black businesses were flourishing: a dry cleaning business, barbershop, three neighborhood stores, and the local gathering place of the "Packhouse" built by one of the town's prominent black citizens by the name of George Grigsby, for whom Grigsby Avenue (previously called Old Fuquay Road) was named. The town board consisted of many of its prominent black citizens, among them Burnis Lassiter, Cora Lassiter, James Norris (Holly Springs' first black mayor), John McNeil, Edison Perkins, George Kimble, and "Preacher" Beckwith. Later, in the 1980s other prominent black citizens joined the town council, among them Nancy Womble, Reverend Otis Byrd, and Parrish "Ham" Womble, who served on the council for 28 years and was also interim mayor for a year.