John Stephens Durham (1861–1919) was a teacher, journalist, author, attorney, civil engineer, and diplomat who served as United States Minister Resident to Haiti.

He graduated from the Institute for Colored Youth on Bainbridge Street and then served as a teacher and principal at various schools in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.

[2][3] In 1891 Republican President Benjamin Harrison appointed Durham to replace Frederick Douglass as United States Minister Resident to Haiti and U.S.

[4] After the ambassadorship, Durham studied and passed the bar exam in 1895, and then returned in 1896 to Santo Domingo to manage a sugar plantation for four years.

In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Durham as assistant U.S. Attorney with the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission in Cuba where he served until 1910.