Durham Stevens

Durham Stevens
Stevens in a 1903 photo
Korean name
Hangul	수지분
Hanja	須知芬 or 須知分
Revised Romanization	Su Ji-bun
McCune–Reischauer	Su Chibun
Phonetic transcription
Hangul	더럼 화이트 스티븐스 더램 화이트 스티븐스
Revised Romanization	Deoreom Hwaiteu Seutibeunseu Deoraem Hwaiteu Seutibeunseu
McCune–Reischauer	Dǒrǒm Hwaitǔ Stibǔnsǔ Dǒraem Hwaitǔ Stibǔnsǔ

Durham White Stevens (February 1, 1851, Washington, D.C. – March 25, 1908, San Francisco, California) was an American diplomat and later an employee of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His shooting death at the hands of Korean American assassins Jang In-hwan and Jeon Myeong-un, in response to his pro-Japanese remarks that infuriated some members of the Korean community, was among the first political assassinations undertaken by pro-Korean activists.

Stevens grew up in Washington, D.C. He enrolled as an undergraduate at Ohio's Oberlin College, from which he graduated in 1871; he then returned to his hometown to study law at Columbian University and Howard University, and was admitted to the bar association of the District of Columbia in 1873 in a class with Joseph E. Lee, Jacksonville, Florida's first black lawyer, Henry Wagner, US Consul at Lyons, France, William E. Matthews, John S. Leary, J. H. Smith, and John A. Moss His career with the Department of State began in October of that same year, when President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him secretary of the United States Legation at Tokyo, where he served under then-United States minister to Japan John Bingham. He enthusiastically accepted his new position, in part due to his fondness for learning new languages; he had previously studied Latin, Greek, French, and German. He was initially one of only three staff members at the Legation. He served as secretary until July 1883, and also took up the post of Charge d'Affairs ad interim in 1878–79, while Bingham was on home leave. After resigning his post, he returned to the United States.