Who We Are

On August 15, 1935 a group of men gathered at a Durham Tennis Club to discuss black affairs and creating a new civic organization in Durham, North Carolina. On that day, The Durham Committee on Negro Affairs was formed. These founders, Charles Clinton Spaulding, James E. Shepard, Rencher N. Harris, W.D. Hill, R.L. McDougald, J.T. Taylor and L.E. Austin were referred to as “a committee of influential Negroes”.

In 1939, the Durham Committee adopted a creed drafted by R. N. Harris. Its emphasis was to register voters, run and support candidates that they indicated would most benefit our race. This creed also vowed to work for the betterment of several initiatives in the black community which included education, health, housing and economic power.

The name of the organization was later changed to the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People.

A beacon of economic power in the Black community

OUR HISTORY

Learn who we are through what we do

OUR MISSION

The DCABP will promote the welfare of Black people in civic, cultural, economic, educational, health, housing, political, youth, and religious and human affairs.

The DCABP will work toward the elimination of racial discrimination and acts of white supremacy in public and private affairs.

The DCABP will partner with other public and private groups in improving the cultural, economic, educational, and human affairs of the Black community.

Our Founders

OUR FOUNDERS

CHARLES CLINTON SPAULDING

Chairman

Charles Clinton Spaulding was an American business leader. For close to thirty years, he presided over North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became America's largest black-owned business, with assets of over $40 million at his death. Spaulding provided leadership in the National Negro Insurance Association and the National Negro Bankers Association by 1920. In 1942, the New York Chamber of Commerce, mainly a white body, elected him to membership. He served as a trustee for Howard University, Shaw University, and North Carolina College at Durham.

J.T. Taylor

Secretary

James T. (J.T.) Taylor, was a noted educator and community leader was born in Danville, Virginia. He was a Professor of Psychology at North Carolina College subsequently becoming department chair.

Founder Taylor later became Dean of Men and Athletics Director at NCCU, and then later became the Director of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAA). In 1938, Taylor was elected the Democratic Chairman (Delegates from Orange, Alamance, Person, Granville, Caswell, and Durham). Under his leadership Durham hosted the largest political gathering of Blacks since reconstruction at the Durham Courthouse.

While he was President of the N.C. Teachers Association, he led a fight for equal pay for Black teachers. In 1955, the James T. Taylor Education Building was constructed and named in his honor on the campus of North Carolina Central University.

R.L. McDougald

Tresurer

Richard was born in 1896 in Whiteville, North Carolina. He was the son of Richard McDougald and Ida Moore. He was living with his mother and stepfather Edward Stephens in 1900 in Columbus County, North Carolina. He attended public schools in New York City; in 1910 at age 15 he was living in New York City, boarding at the same address as his older brother, Cornelius, who was a lawyer with the District Attorney's office. Richard returned to North Carolina to attend the North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University). According to his obituary, Richard served during World War I with US Naval Air Forces in Pauliac, France.

Rencher N. Harris

Assistant Secretary

Rencher Nicholas ("R.N.") Harris was a prominent black businessman and community leader, the first African American to be elected to the Durham City Council in May 1953. After declining to run for reelection, he was also the first African American named to the Durham City School Board in 1958 (decades prior to the city-county merger).

Born and raised in Virginia, Harris moved to Durham in the early 1920s as an employee of Banker's Fire Insurance, where he climbed the ranks to company secretary by 1939. He also served for a time as the head of the Durham chapter of the NAACP, and on boards at Lincoln Hospital, NC Mutual, and Mechanics & Farmers Bank.

Rencher N Harris Assistant Secretary.webp

L.E. Austin

At-Large Member

Louis Austin 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.

W.D. Hill

At-Large Member

Born in Richmond, Hill was a graduate of Virginia Union College and attended Columbia University before starting an insurance career in Virginia. He went to work for the Mutual Life Insurance Co. in 1917 and after some time as a field agent became an assistant secretary at the home office. Brother of Union League executive Arnold Hill, W.D. Hill was a founding member of the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs (now Committee on the Affairs of Black People) in 1935.

W.J. Kennedy

Made Motion to Establish the DCABP

A native of Andersonville, Ga., William Jesse Kennedy Jr. better known as "W.J.," impressed North Carolina Mutual's home office by leading its Savannah district to 500 percent growth between 1916 and 1919. Called up to Durham to fill the role of the deceased John Merrick in 1919, Kennedy Jr. had earned a seat on the Parrish Street firm's board within a year.

W.J. Kennedy made the motion to establish.webp

John H. Wheeler

Counted Ballots at First Meeting

John Hervey Wheeler was an American bank president, businessman, civil rights leader, and educator based in North Carolina. Throughout his life, Wheeler was recognized for his accomplishments by various institutions across the country. John H. Wheeler started as a bank teller at Mechanics and Farmers Bank, and worked his way up to become the bank's president in 1952. In the 1960s, Wheeler became increasingly active in United States politics, carrying several White House positions appointed by Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Welcome to the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People website. We are pleased that you have come to visit us, and hope that you will take time to explore this site and learn more about the DCABP, what we do and how we do it, and some of the important initiatives we have undertaken on behalf of our community in Durham, the state and the nation in eight and one half decades of our existence.

DCABP was formed as the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs by a group of visionary leaders in 1935, with the goal of improving the lives of African-American citizens in Durham. From a relatively modest beginning, we have grown into an organization that is recognized nationally for our influence in matters pertaining to the African-American community in many arenas, including economic development, health and public safety, education and political activism.

In 2023 we are emerging from the pandemic with a renewed sense of optimism and commitment. With all that we have accomplished in our more than eight decades of existence we think we can do so much more, and we’re working to expand our membership to take on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. We have reduced the cost of student memberships and welcome more young people into the organization. Please consider joining us if you meet membership criteria.

Check us out. Let’s move forward together!

Walter A. Jackson
Chair, DCABP

Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People