Location: NC 54 at Carl Durham Road west of White Cross
County: Orange
Original Date Cast: 2014
Born at White Cross in 1892, Carl Thomas Durham was a pharmacist and Democratic congressman from the Sixth District of North Carolina (Orange, Durham, Guilford, and Alamance Counties) from 1939-1961. Durham served on many committees but namely as charter member and later chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, member of the House Armed Services Committee, U.S. representative on the International Atomic Energy Agency, and delegate to the 1954 Atoms for Peace Conference in Geneva. His influence can be most clearly identified on issues related to the armed services, civil defense, atomic energy, and pharmaceutical regulation. Three key contributions can be identified, as follows.
Durham is credited with securing the passage of a bill for the construction of a defensive radar system along the US-Canadian border. The resulting system, known as the Pinetree Line, operated from 1951-1953 and was the first effective radar network for detecting Soviet air strikes. Through arduous back-room negotiations, Durham and Sen. Brien McMahon championed the passage of the 1946 Atomic Energy Act, moving control of the Atomic Energy Commission from the army to the civilian sector.
In 1946, a Durham-led special committee (a subset of the House Committee on Military Affairs) released a report criticizing the military’s court-martial system and the use of “blue discharges,” an administrative discharge favored by command in removing homosexuals or suspected homosexuals from service. The report resulted in the abandonment of blue discharges through the adoption of a new discharge classification system (though command continued to target gay service members) and a reformed court-martial system.
Perhaps Durham’s most influential congressional contribution came in 1951 when he teamed up with Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota to cosponsor a series of amendments to the 1938 Food, Drugs, and Cosmetic Act. Known as the Durham-Humphrey amendments, the legislation established two official classes of drugs (over the counter and prescription), determined classification criteria, and appointed the Food and Drug Administration as the governing body for the classification process. The system remains in place to this day.
References:
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989 (1989)
William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, II, 125-26—sketch by Warner Wells
Richard Abood, Pharmacy Practice and the Law (2008)