Graham was born on October 14, 1886, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the son of Alexander Graham and Katherine Sloan. He was raised in a Scotch Presbyterian family that emphasized the importance of education. His father became the first superintendent of public schools at Fayetteville and later at Charlotte, North Carolina.
Frank attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a B. A. in 1909. He attended the law school at the university and was admitted to the bar, but never practiced law. He went to New York City and received an M. A. in history from Columbia University in 1916.
With the entry of the United States into World War I, Graham joined the Marines as a private; he was discharged as a lieutenant in 1919. He taught at Chapel Hill until 1922, when he decided to do further graduate work, first at the University of Chicago, then at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D. C. , and finally at the London School of Economics. He never completed the dissertation requirement for the Ph. D. When he returned to Chapel Hill in 1925 to take up an appointment in the history department, he brought with him an enthusiasm to teach the importance of democratic values. In order to reach beyond the classroom, he joined many organizations and participated in many conferences concerned with improving the lot of the weak and poor. He supported workman's compensation laws, trade unions, public welfare, and restrictions on conditions of work for women and children. In 1929, in the course of a major labor dispute in Gastonia, North Carolina, violence broke out and several persons were shot, including the chief of police, who died. Later that year he published "An Economic Bill of Rights, " which called for free speech and assembly, the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively, and for a reduction of the sixty-hour work week in the textile mills. Elected president of the University of North Carolina in 1930, Graham spoke about academic freedom in his inaugural address. In 1931 the legislature consolidated the university at Chapel Hill with the State College at Raleigh and the Woman's College at Greensboro, and the following year Graham was elected president of the Consolidated University. He remained president of the university until he was appointed to the Senate in 1949. His attachment to liberal causes and his membership in more than 150 political organizations was often criticized by those who believed that the president of the university should not be active in social causes, no matter how worthy their goals. He worked sixty-hour weeks, spending weekdays in Washington with the WLB and weekends on university business in Chapel Hill. He remained with the War Labor Board until December 1945, when he returned to full-time duties as president of the university. Late in 1946 President Truman appointed Graham to serve on the Committee on Civil Rights, which issued its historic report, To Secure These Rights, on October 29, 1947. Graham, one of two southerners on the committee, supported the recommendations to eliminate segregation, the poll tax, the white primary, and other forms of discrimination, but he opposed a Fair Employment Practices Committee possessing compulsory authority. In 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall asked Graham to serve on a three-man United Nations Committee to mediate a dispute between the Netherlands and the Republican forces in Indonesia. The committee was successful in its negotiations, and early in 1948 Graham was able to report to the United Nations the cessation of hostilities between the sovereign United States of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On March 22, 1949, Graham was appointed by Governor W. Kerr Scott to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator J. Melville Broughton. In 1950 Graham failed to be nominated in a bitterly contested Democratic runoff primary. His defeat was thought to be the result of the strong opposition in the state to the Truman civil rights program. From 1951 to 1970 Graham was employed by the United Nations. He was appointed Representative for India and Pakistan to try to resolve their dispute over Kashmir. While he was unsuccessful in his efforts to negotiate a peaceful solution in the conflict over Kashmir, he became an effective spokesman for the UN. He gave hundreds of speeches in support of the UN throughout the United States. He resigned from the UN in 1970. He died in Chapel Hill on February 16, 1972.
President of the Consolidated University (1932); chairman of the Advisory Council on Economic Security (1934); member of the Advisory Committee on Education (1938); member of the Advisory Committee on Economic Conditions in the South (1938); In 1941 member of the National Defense Mediation Board (1941); member of the War Labor Board (1942)
Throughout his career at the university, Graham was known not only for his liberal views, but also for his personal warmth and gentle, persuasive manner. His concern for his students was legendary.
On July 21, 1932, Graham married Marian Drane, the daughter of an Episcopal clergyman, in Edenton, North Carolina. They had no children.
