From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

John Stephens Durham, sometimes said to be from Kentucky, was actually born in Philadelphia, PA. He was the United States Minister to Haiti (1891-1892); he had replaced Frederick Douglass, who had resigned. The appointment was made during the Harrison Administration. Durham had been the Consul at San Domingo, Dominican Republic (1890-1891).

Durham was an 1886 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the first African Americans to graduate from the school. He was a civil engineer; a journalist with the Bulletin, a Philadelphia newspaper; and an author of at least two books, Diane, Priestess of Haiti and To Teach the Negro History: a suggestion.

In 1897, Durham married Constance McKenzie, a white woman who had been the director of the Porter School Kindergarten in Philadelphia.

For more see "The West Indies," The Quarterly Register of Current History, vol. 1 (1892), pp. 439-440; "The New Minister to Haiti," New York Times, 9/06/1891, p. 1; and "School teacher weds a Negro," New York Times, 7/02/1897, p. 10.