Plato Durham

Plato Durham (September 20, 1840 – November 9, 1875) was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. Raised on his father's farm in High Shoals, North Carolina, he studied law before joining the Confederate States Army following the outbreak of the American Civil War. Rising to the rank of captain, he fought in several battles before surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse. He completed his education after the war and opened a successful legal practice in Shelby. Involving himself in politics, he served in the North Carolina General Assembly and was a leader among the small contingent of Conservative delegates at the state's 1868 constitutional convention. He also joined the Ku Klux Klan and was arrested for Klan-related activities by federal authorities in 1871 but never tried. He spent much of his time thereafter advocating for accused Klansmen, providing them with bail funds and legal defense, and pursuing clemency.

Plato Durham was born on September 20, 1840 in High Shoals, North Carolina to Micajah and Esther Baxter Durham. He was the fourth of 13 children.^[1] He was raised on his father's farm in High Shoals.^[2] Educated in public schools in his youth, he read law in Rutherfordton when he was 18 years of age before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee to continue his studies under his uncle, Judge John Baxter.^[1]

Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War, Durham enlisted in a Confederate States Army unit in Knoxville. He subsequently returned to North Carolina and joined a unit raised in Cleveland County,^[1] Company E, 12th North Carolina Infantry. On November 1, 1862, he was elected third lieutenant. He was later promoted to the rank of captain. He fought in the battles of Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Spotsylvania. He surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse.^[3] His father and two brothers also fought in the war and died. On April 9, 1868, he married Nora Catherine Tracy. The two had five children, including Plato Tracy and Robert Lee.^[1]

Following the Civil War, Durham enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of Law. He was admitted to the bar in Shelby in August 1866 and ran a successful legal practice.^[1]

Durham was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1866.^[1][4]

Durham served as a delegate to North Carolina's 1868 constitutional convention.^[1] The convention was convened from January 14 to March 16, 1868.^[5] He served on the body's Committee on Suffrage and Eligibility to Office.^[6] Durham, along with John W. Graham, provided leadership to the small contingent of Conservative delegates.^[7] Durham tried twice to move resolutions which favored blanket re-enfranchisement of Confederate veterans without success.^[5] He made motions to require pre-war citizenship of North Carolina for candidates seeking the office of governor or lieutenant governor,^[8] bar blacks from being legal guardians of white children,^[9] and constitutionally require racial segregation in public education, but was defeated.^[10]

Durham was subsequently re-elected to the General Assembly,^[1] serving through 1870.^[11] Following the emergence of a widespread corruption scandal concerning state bonds and subsidies of railways in 1869, Durham convinced the House of Representatives to assemble a commission to go to New York City to investigate fraudulent dealings on the bond market. The House later repealed this measure.^[12] When businessman Milton S. Littlefield, one of the leading figures in the scandal, appeared in Raleigh in March 1870 to testify before an investigative committee, Durham moved to require him to disclose the names of every legislator he had issued loans to, but the House quashed his proposal.^[13]

Durham ran for North Carolina's 7th congressional district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1868. Initial results suggested he had won over his opponent, Republican Alexander H. Jones, by 18 votes, but Second Military District Governor Edward Canby invalidated the results on grounds of electoral fraud.^[1] Jones prevailed by one vote in a new contest three months later.^[14] Durham ran again as a Democratic nominee for the Congressional seat in 1870 but was disqualified and withdrew due to his refusal to take the test oath to the Union.^[1][15] Unable to obtain the Democratic nomination in 1874, he campaigned unsuccessfully as an independent for the seat.^[1]

Durham joined the Ku Klux Klan in late 1868 or early 1869. While fellow Confederate veteran Leroy McAfee may have been the titular head of the Klan in Cleveland County, Durham proved its most influential figure.^[15] He was arrested for Klan-related activities by federal authorities in 1871 but never tried. He spent much of his time thereafter advocating for accused Klansmen, providing them with bail funds and legal defense, and pursuing clemency.^[1]

Durham died from pneumonia on November 9, 1875^[1] at his home in Shelby.^[16] He was buried in the city's Sunset Cemetery. A granite tombstone erected at the initiative of Durham's son Robert describes him with the epitaph, "soldier, lawyer, statesman".^[17] A highway historical marker commemorating him was erected in Shelby in 1948.^[3]

• Bernstein, Leonard (October 1949). "The Participation of Negro Delegates in the Constitutional Convention of 1868 in North Carolina". The Journal of Negro History. 34 (4): 391–409. doi:10.2307/2715607. JSTOR 2715607.
• Cheney, John L. Jr., ed. (1981). North Carolina Government, 1585-1979: A Narrative and Statistical History (revised ed.). Raleigh: North Carolina Secretary of State. OCLC 1290270510.
• Cole, J. Timothy (2016). The Forest City Lynching of 1900: Populism, Racism, and White Supremacy in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8040-1.
• Hume, Richard L. (2008). Blacks, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags : The Constitutional Conventions of Radical Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 9780807148341.
• Raper, Horace W. (1985). William W. Holden: North Carolina's Political Enigma. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807850608.