#RHOP Star Gizelle Bryant's Father Curtis Graves Dies At 84

#RHOP star Gizelle Bryant announced that her father noted civil rights activist Curtis Graves died at 84.

Source: Prince Williams / Getty

Gizelle took to Instagram to share the sad news. She posted a recent picture with her father and three daughters, Grace, Adore, and Angel.

“Thank you for being the best Dad that a little girl could ever want or need, I will miss you everyday of my life,” she wrote.

Her daughter Grace posted a tribute picture with her grandfather at her high school graduation last month on her Instagram Stories.

In his groundbreaking career, Curtis Graves was elected to Texas’ House of Representatives in 1966. He and two other members became the first Black people elected as Texas state representatives since 1896.

After that, he had a 30-year career at the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA). Graves started in NASA’s Academic Affairs Division before working his way up to its Director for Civil Affairs.

On Real Housewives of Potomac, Gizelle introduced her father’s work to a new generation. She proudly shared his legacy as an activist and leader during the Civil Rights Movement.

“My dad was very involved with the Civil Rights movement years ago in Houston. For my daughters, this is third generation. My dad was working 60 years ago and he worked with Martin Luther King,” she told Bravo in 2020.

Gizelle added that he inspired her to work for the national  NAACP headquarters after college. The Reasonably Shady host wanted to pass that activism on to her daughters, who made her father proud by protesting George Floyd’s killing.

In 2015, Congress recognized Graves’ “distinguished public service career.”

“On behalf of the people of Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District, and in anticipation of his seventy-seventh birthday on August 26, 2015, I would like to thank Curtis M. Graves for his lifelong career of public service and for his many contributions to our nation,” said Maryland’s then-U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen,

“I wish him and his family all the best in the years to come.”

Our condolences go out to Curtis Graves’ family and loved ones.