Durham Fact-Finding Conference.

  1. Durham Fact-Finding Conference.
  2. Version History

The Durham Fact-Finding Conference, a congress of African American leaders in business, education, and religion, was held three times--7-9 December 1927, 17-19 April 1929, and 16-18 April 1930--at the North Carolina College for Negroes (later North Carolina Central University) in Durham, N.C. The conferences focused on the local African American community and concerns related to business, public health, religion, politics, education, the press, and race relations. James E. Shepard, president of the North Carolina College for Negroes, sponsored and presided over the conference, and both black and white experts in various fields spoke. Subsequent meetings grew out of the Durham Fact-Finding Conference, most notably the Southern Conference on Race Relations on 20 October 1942 and the Durham Race Relations Conference in 1944, both held at the North Carolina College for Negroes.

1919 The Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC) was formed in Atlanta, Ga., in reaction to growing racial tensions in the nation during and after World War I. The CIC enjoyed its greatest influence in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s and served an important role in educating southern whites to racial injustice, in examining the economic problems of the South's poor, and in making lynching an unacceptable practice. 1927 The First Annual Durham Fact-Finding Conference met in Durham, N.C., on 7-9 December 1927. James E. Shepard of the North Carolina College for Negroes presided. 1929 The Second Annual Durham Fact-Finding Conference met in Durham, N.C., on 17-19 April 1929. James E. Shepard of the North Carolina College for Negroes presided. The stated objective was to ascertain true facts regarding various problems confronting the Negro as a group in the United States and to offer some practical program for their solution. 1930 The Third Annual Durham Fact-Finding Conference met in Durham, N.C., on 16-18 April. James E. Shepard of the North Carolina College for Negroes presided. The theme of the conference was The Economic Problems of the Negro, and the purpose was to ascertain the real facts concerning the progress of the race at the present time and if possible through existing organizations seek to apply the remedy. 1935 Executive director of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Charles C. Spaulding invited a group of Negro citizens to meet and discuss black life in Durham, N.C. More than 150 African Americans met at the Algonquin Tennis Club House in Durham, N.C., on 15 August 1935. Brief remarks were made by Spaulding, James E. Shepard, Conrad O. Pearson, Richard L. McDougald, Rencher N. Harris, James T. Taylor, and William D. Hill. After discussions, the group agreed to form a representative body that would address all matters related to African Americans in Durham, N.C., including their educational, economic, political, civic, and social welfare. James E. Shepard and other African American leaders were nominated to the executive committee of the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs. 1942 The Southern Conference on Race Relations brought 59 black leaders from ten southern states to North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, N.C., on 20 October 1942. They met to discuss the Southern Negroes' status and the changes which, in [their] opinion, would benefit not only Negroes themselves but the South and the Nation. In December 1942, a conference committee headed by Charles S. Johnson of Fisk University released a public document that became known as both the Durham Statement and the Durham Manifesto. The document's authors demanded voting rights and equal educational and job opportunities for African Americans. 1943 White southerners from ten states made a formal response to the Durham Manifesto in the spring of 1943 following a conference held in Atlanta on 8 April 1943. The Atlanta Statement had more than 300 signatures. Out of these two conferences grew a third, the Durham and Atlanta Conference held in Richmond, Va., on 16 June 1943. This conference differed from its predecessors in two significant ways. The meeting was integrated, and the participants were delegates. The Collaboration Committee, a group of both African American and white delegates, issued the Richmond Statement. The Collaboration Committee appointed a group of 22 whites and 19 African Americans who met in Atlanta on 4 August 1943. Recognizing that war conditions necessitated a new approach to the South's race problems, the group resolved itself into the Southern Regional Council and instructed the co-chairs Charles S. Johnson and Howard Odum to build the organization. 1944 An outgrowth of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, the non-profit and non-denominational Southern Regional Council formed to seek racial equality and harmony in the American South.

From the guide to the Durham Fact-Finding Conference Records, 1929-1930 and 1942-1945, (North Carolina Central University. James E. Shepard Memorial Library.)
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