Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake county. It is the fifth largest city in the state by population, with 223,284 residents as of July 1 , 2008 . Durham County as of July 1, 2008 has 262,715 residents. It is the home of Duke University and North Carolina Central University, and is also one of the vertices of the Research Triangle area (home of the Research Triangle Park).
Durham is the core of the four-county Durham MSA, which has a population of 489,762 as of July 1, 2008. The US Office of Management and Budget also includes Durham as a part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 1,578,527 as of July 1, 2008.
History
Native Americans
The Eno and the Occaneechi, related to the Sioux, and the Shakori – lived and farmed here. Durham is thought to be the site of an ancient Native American village named Adshusheer. The Great Indian Trading Path is traced through Durham, and Native Americans helped to mold Durham by establishing settlement sites and commercial transportation routes.
Europeans
In 1701, Durham's beauty was chronicled by the explorer John Lawson, who called the area "the flower of the Carolinas." During the mid-1700's, Scots, Irish, and English colonists settled on land granted to John Carteret, Earl of Granville, by King Charles I (for whom the Carolinas are named). Early settlers built gristmills, such as West Point, and worked the land.
Revolutionary War
Prior to the American Revolution, frontiersmen in what is now Durham were involved in the "War of Regulators." According to legend, Loyalist militia cut Cornwallis Road through this area in 1771 to quell the rebellion. Later, William Johnston, a local shopkeeper and farmer, forged Revolutionary ammunition, served in the Provincial Capital Congress in 1775, and helped underwrite Daniel Boone's westward explorations. During the period between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, large plantations such as Hardscrabble, Cameron, and Leigh were established. By 1860, Stagville Plantation lay at the center of one of the largest plantation holdings in the South. African slaves were brought to labor on these farms and plantations, and slave quarters became the hearth of distinctively Southern cultural traditions involving crafts, social relations, life rituals, music, and dance. There were free African-Americans in the area as well, including several who fought in the Revolutionary War.
The Civil War Era
Prior to the arrival of the railroad, the area now known as Durham was almost entirely agricultural, with a few businesses catering to travelers (particularly livestock drivers) along the Hillsborough Road. This road, eventually followed by US Route 70, was the major east-west route in North Carolina from colonial times until the construction of interstate highways. There was a search for a suitable railroad depot for the North Carolina Railroad between Raleigh and Hillsborough. The wood-burning steam locomotives of the time had to stop frequently to refuel, and depots supplying wood and water could not be more than 25–30 miles apart. A post office known as Herndon's existed in the area from 1827 and one at nearby Prattsburg was established in 1836. The landowners at Prattsburg refused to sell land to the railroad. Somewhat further to the northwest in what was then part of Orange County, a country physician named Bartlett S. Durham lived and practiced along the route. In 1849, Dr. Durham provided land for a railroad station. He donated land to the railroad, which named the subsequent depot Durham Station. The community of Durham Station grew slowly before the Civil War, but expanded rapidly following the war; the present city charter dates from 1869. Much of this growth can be attributed to the establishment of a thriving tobacco industry. Soldiers, both Union and Confederate, were encamped near Bennett Place, just outside Durham Station, during surrender proceedings in April 1865. While on the battlefront, soldiers liberally helped themselves to the area's Brightleaf Tobacco, which purportedly had a milder flavor than other tobacco varieties. Veterans returned home after the war with an interest in acquiring more of the great tobacco they had sampled in North Carolina. Numerous orders were mailed to John Ruffin Green's tobacco company requesting more of the Durham tobacco. W.T. Blackwell partnered with Green and renamed the company as the "Bull Durham Tobacco Factory". The name "Bull Durham" is said to have been taken from the bull on the British Colman's Mustard, which Mr. Blackwell (mistakenly) believed was manufactured in Durham, England.
20th century
The rapid growth and prosperity of the Bull Durham Tobacco Company, and Washington Duke's Duke & Sons Tobacco Company, resulted in the rapid growth of the city of Durham. While the tobacco industry dominated the city's economy initially, it was soon rivaled by the establishment of multiple textile mills, particularly in East and West Durham. Much of the early city architecture, both commercial and residential, dates from the period of 1890 - 1930.
Durham quickly developed a vibrant Black community, the center of which was an area known as 'Hayti' (pronounced HAY-tie), just south of the center of town, where some of the most prominent and successful black-owned businesses in the country during the early 20th century were established. These businesses — the best known of which are North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company and Mechanics & Farmers' Bank — were centered on Parrish St., which would come to be known as "Black Wall Street." In 1910,Dr. James E. Shepard founded North Carolina Central University, the nation's first publicly supported liberal arts college for African-Americans.
In 1924 James Buchanan Duke established a philanthropic foundation in honor of his father Washington Duke to support Trinity College in Durham. The college changed its name to Duke University and built a large campus and hospital a mile west of Trinity College (the original site of Trinity College is now known as the Duke East Campus).
Durham's manufacturing fortunes declined during the mid-20th century. Textile mills began to close during the 1930s. Competition from other tobacco companies (as well as a decrease in smoking after the 1960s) reduced revenues from Durham's tobacco industry. Although the region benefited significantly from the establishment of Research Triangle Park in 1958, Durham did not experience the same early increases in housing development as neighboring Raleigh and Cary. Suburban flight also contributed to the slow but progressive decline of downtown Durham as a retail and economic center.
Civil Rights
With a strong African-American community, a strong Civil Rights movement developed in Durham. Multiple sit-ins were held, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the city during the struggle for equal rights. The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, organized in 1935 by C.C. Spaulding and Dr. James E. Shepard, has been cited nationally for its role in the sit-in movements of the 1950's-60's. The committee also has used its voting strength to pursue social and economic rights for African-Americans and other ethnic groups. In the late 1950's, Reverend Douglas Moore, minister of Durham's Asbury Temple Methodist Church, along with other religious and community leaders, pioneered sit-ins throughout North Carolina to protest discrimination at lunch counters that served only whites. A sit-in at a Woolworth's counter in Greensboro, NC, captured the nation's attention. Within days, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. met Reverend Moore in Durham, where Dr. King coined his famous rallying cry "Fill up the jails," during a speech at White Rock Baptist Church. Advocating non-violent confrontation with segregation laws for the first time, Dr. King said, "Let us not fear going to jail. If the officials threaten to arrest us for standing up for our rights, we must answer by saying that we are willing and prepared to fill up the jails of the South." This strong community was not enough to prevent the demolition of portions of the Hayti district for the construction of the Durham Freeway during the late 1960s. The freeway construction resulted in losses to other historic neighborhoods, including Morehead Hills, West End, and West Durham. Combined with large-scale demolition using Urban Renewal funds, Durham suffered significant losses to its historic architectural base.
1970's - present
Durham's growth began to rekindle during the 1970s and 1980s, with the construction of multiple housing developments in the southern part of the city, nearest Research Triangle Park, and the beginnings of downtown revitalization. In 1975, the St. Joseph's Historical Foundation at the Hayti Heritage Center was incorporated to "preserve the heritage of the old Hayti community, and to promote the understanding of and appreciation for the African American experience and African Americans' contributions to world culture." A new downtown baseball stadium was constructed for the Durham Bulls in 1994. A large-scale re
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