Frank Porter GRAHAM, Congress, NC (1886-1972)

GRAHAM, Frank Porter, a Senator from North Carolina; born in Fayetteville, Cumberland County, N.C., October 14, 1886; attended the public schools of Charlotte and the preparatory academy at Warrenton, N.C.; graduated, University of North Carolina 1909; studied law at the University of North Carolina and received license to practice in 1913; received a graduate degree at Columbia University, New York City in 1916; high school English instructor in Raleigh, N.C., 1910-1912; instructor, assistant professor, and professor of history, University of North Carolina 1915-1930; during the First World War enlisted as a private in the United States Marine Corps in June 1917 and was discharged in July 1919 as a first lieutenant; returned to the University of North Carolina and became president 1930-1949; served on the Consumers Board of National Recovery Administration, the National Advisory Council to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Security, the President’s Committee on Education, the Industries Committee of American Railroads, the National Defense Mediation Board, the National War Labor Board, the Maritime War Emergency Board, and the Good Offices Committee of the Security Council of the United Nations on Indonesia; adviser to the Secretary of State on Indonesian Affairs in 1948; appointed on March 29, 1949, as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of J. Melville Broughton and served from March 29, 1949, to November 26, 1950; unsuccessful candidate for the nomination in 1950 to fill the vacancy; United Nations mediator and United Nations representative to India and Pakistan in the Kashmir dispute; chairman, North Carolina Tercentenary Celebration Commission 1963; retired from the United Nations in 1967 because of ill health and returned to Chapel Hill, N.C., where he died February 16, 1972; interment in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Ashby, Warren. Frank Porter Graham, A Southern Liberal. Winston-Salem: J.F. Blair, 1980; Pleasants, Julian M., and Augustus M. Burns III. Frank Porter Graham and the 1950 Senate Race in North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present