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William J. Durham

American lawyer

Summary

American lawyer

William J. Durham (1896–1970) was a resident of Sherman, Texas, for much of his life. He was notable as an African-American attorney and leader in the civil rights movement.

Biography

Born on a farm near Sulphur Springs, Texas, Durham attended Emporia State University in Kansas. After serving in the United States Army in France during World War I, he moved to Sherman where he studied law in the office of a white attorney, Benjamin F. Gafford. Durham was admitted to the bar in 1926 and began practicing law.

Durham spent the rest of his life fighting for equal rights for blacks in Texas, despite a race riot in Sherman in May 1930, where the black business district, including Durham's office, was burned.{{cite web| url= http://rockwallheraldbanner.com/opinion/x1054519589/Forged-in-fire-The-W-J-Durham-story/print|title= Forged in fire – The W.J. Durham story|date= 28 July 2006|publisher= Rockwall Herald-Banner (Texas)

His most famous case was Sweatt v. Painter (1950) which resulted in the integration of the University of Texas School of Law. Durham and Thurgood Marshall worked closely in crafting this case from quarters in the Durham family home in Sherman.

Durham eventually moved his practice to Dallas, Texas, and practiced law there for many years. When he died on December 22, 1970, he was buried in Greenville Cemetery in Greenville, Texas.

References

"Durham, William J.". Texas State Historical Association.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1896-births 1970-deaths american-civil-rights-activists 20th-century-american-lawyers lawyers-from-dallas people-from-sherman,-texas activists-from-texas 20th-century-african-american-lawyers

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