Charles Clinton Spaulding

A patriarch of Durham's African American population, C.C. (Charles Clinton) Spaulding (1874-1952) was a leader of the N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co. , becoming its general manager in 1900 and president in 1923.

Along with Mutual founders John Merrick and Aaron Moore, Spaulding was a principal figure in other African American business ventures such as the Mechanics and Farmers Bank, Bankers Fire Insurance Company and Mutual Savings and Loan Association. He was also a trustee of African American colleges, a philanthropist, and an active Democrat during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration's New Deal.

On another front, Spaulding was an officer of, North Carolina Commission on Interracial Cooperation and a founder and long-time chairman of the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs (now Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People).