Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 census, Durham is the fourth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 71st-most populous city in the United States. The city is located in the east-central part of the Piedmont region along the Eno River. Durham is the core of the four-county Durham–Chapel Hill metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 608,879 in 2023. The Office of Management and Budget also includes Durham as a part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary combined statistical area, commonly known as the Research Triangle, which had an estimated population of 2,368,947 in 2023.
North Carolina Central University is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Henry McKinley "Mickey" Michaux Jr. is an American civil rights activist and Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly. He represented the state's thirty-first House district from 1983 to 2019 and previously served from 1973 through 1977. The district included constituents in Durham County. Upon his retirement, Michaux was the longest-serving member of the North Carolina General Assembly. In the 2007-2008 session, Michaux served as senior chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the House Select Committee on Street Gang Prevention.
Melville Jean Herskovits was an American anthropologist who helped to first establish African and African Diaspora studies in American academia. He is known for exploring the cultural continuity from African cultures as expressed in African-American communities. He worked with his wife Frances (Shapiro) Herskovits, also an anthropologist, in the field in South America, the Caribbean and Africa. They jointly wrote several books and monographs.
Charlie Nelms is an educator and administrator who served as the tenth chancellor of North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. On July 26, 2012, after completing a five-year commitment to serve at the institution, Dr. Nelms announced his retirement, effective August 6, 2012. He currently is a contributing writer to The Huffington Post on educational issues and has founded Destination Graduation, a non-profit organization focused on increasing retention and graduation rates at the nation's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
Albert Nathaniel Whiting was an American academic who was President and Chancellor of North Carolina College from 1966 to 1983. He was born in Navesink, New Jersey in July 1917, and served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. He received his PhD from the American University in 1952. Whiting served as Dean of the Faculty of Morgan State College before becoming president and Chancellor of North Carolina College. He was married to Lottie Luck, who predeceased him in 2004 at the age of 85.
James Edward Shepard was an American pharmacist, civil servant and educator, the founder of what became the North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. He first established it as a private school for religious training in 1910 but adapted it as a school for teachers. He had a network of private supporters, including northern white philanthropists such as Olivia Slocum Sage of New York.
The North Carolina A&T–North Carolina Central rivalry is an ongoing series of athletic competitions between North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and North Carolina Central University, both of which are located in North Carolina.
The Myth of the Negro Past is a 1941 monograph by Melville J. Herskovits intended to debunk the myth that African Americans lost their African culture due to their experience of slavery. The book was the first publication of the Carnegie Corporation's Study of the American Negro and took 15 years to research. Herskovits argued that African Americans had retained their heritage from Africa in music, art, social structure, family life, religion, and speech patterns. The book became controversial because it was feared its arguments could be used by proponents of racial segregation to prove that African Americans could not be assimilated into mainstream American society.
Luther Porter Jackson was a historian, educator, author, and civil rights leader who advocated for voting rights in the United States. Through publishing and activism, Jackson mobilized the African American population of Virginia and elsewhere to push for civil rights and voting rights from the 1920s until his death in 1950.
The North Carolina Central University School of Law is the law school associated with North Carolina Central University. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and the North Carolina State Bar Council, and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). According to NC Central's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 37.9% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.
The American Council on African Education (ACAE) is an American institution for the benefit of African students.
Robert R. Bond was the first graduate of what is today called North Carolina Central University School of Law. He graduated in 1943, and was the only African American to successfully pass the North Carolina bar exam that same year.
Hocutt v. Wilson, N.C. Super. Ct. (1933) (unreported), was the first attempt to desegregate higher education in the United States. It was initiated by two African American lawyers from Durham, North Carolina, Conrad O. Pearson and Cecil McCoy, with the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The case was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing, but it served as a test case for challenging the "separate but equal" doctrine in education and was a precursor to Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
The Royal Ice Cream sit-in was a nonviolent protest in Durham, North Carolina, that led to a court case on the legality of segregated facilities. The demonstration took place on June 23, 1957 when a group of African American protesters, led by Reverend Douglas E. Moore, entered the Royal Ice Cream Parlor and sat in the section reserved for white patrons. When asked to move, the protesters refused and were arrested for trespassing. The case was appealed unsuccessfully to the County and State Superior Courts.
Louis Austin (1898-1971) was an African-American journalist, civic leader and social activist. Austin purchased The Carolina Times in 1927 and transformed it into an institution that aided African Americans in their fight for freedom and equality in North Carolina. He used a new approach to civil rights issues in Durham, incorporating lower and middle class blacks, unlike the moderate, accommodationist approach of the black elite in Durham during this time. Austin's unusual strategy of advocating for the majority of blacks to have a voice in society succeeded in galvanizing a broader segment of the African American community in Durham to act for social change. Austin's approach to black activism helped lay the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement in Durham in the late 1950s and 1960s, which also encouraged lower-income blacks to become politically active. His strategies—which were once considered too radical by his peers—allowed Austin to maintain his influence in Durham well into the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, Austin created a lasting impact for Durham.
The Carolina Times was an American English-language weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina and founded in 1919 or 1921. It ceased publication in 2020.
Harold T. Epps Sr. was a prominent attorney in North Carolina who was instrumental in desegregating the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.
Earlie Endris Thorpe was a professor of history, an author, and clergyman in the United States. He lived in Durham, North Carolina and was a professor at North Carolina Central University for 27 years. Duke University has a collection of his papers and correspondence.
