William J. Durham
American activist and 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. He became a leader in the Texas NAACP and served as the attorney in more than forty civil rights cases that sought to end segregation throughout 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.
The public source identifies “William J. Durham” as american activist and lawyer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Durham and American.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “William J. Durham”, the useful work is to connect “american activist and lawyer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8013209. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1896, 1970, 1926 and 1930.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “William J. Durham”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow William J. Durham primary sources, William J. Durham archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William J. Durham”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “William J. Durham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.